Receiving is an art and to be a good hostess, the most important rule is to make your guests feel comfortable in your home. But to ensure a successful reception on a more elegant and elaborate occasion, knowing how to set the table, where to place it and which plates, cutlery and glasses can make all the difference.
Here are some tips for arranging the main items of a formal dining table in place and welcoming your guests in style.
Plates
Formal dinner plates should be stacked in order of use, main course, entree on it. At the base is the sousplat (pronounced suppla), which serves only as a garnish and should be placed on the tablecloth or placemat before the porcelain plates and removed when the meal is over to make room for the dessert plate.
A bread plate can be placed and a dessert knife on it. This dish should be to the left of the meal plate.
Cutlery
The order of formal dinner cutlery follows the order of the menu from the outside in. The spoons are always on the right, as are the knives that should have the cut facing the plate. The forks always go left.
The dessert cutlery should be positioned above the plate. The spoon handle is to the right, and the fork is just below, to the left.
Cups
The correct thing is to put only four glasses on the table: for water, red wine, white wine and champagne. Formal dinner glasses should be arranged from largest to smallest, left to right. If serving only one type of wine, pour only one glass. You can use glasses from the same crystal game or glasses from several mixed games, but as long as they match each other, with the towel and the dishes.
Napkin
Cloth napkins can take a little more work because they need to be washed later, but they make the table much more elegant. There are different ways to fold napkins for formal dining, but the important thing is that they are nicely present to the left of the fork or folded in the center of the plate.
Learn How to Set a Formal Dinner Table (May 2024)
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