How to Set a Table for a Formal Dinner

The intricacies of table settings have gone the way of butlers and parasol flirtations, calling cards and dressing for dinner. But that may be changing. After all, Downton Abbey was wildly popular for more than just beautiful fashion and furnishings. More and more people are beginning to suspect that style and formality and gracious living have their moments, and that, in the words of Dorothy Davis, “informality has made strangers of us all.”

So chances are good that sooner or later you’re going to encounter a formal dinner place setting. and With the holidays upon us, that time may be approaching. Even if formal isn’t your fancy, knowing how people used to dine is just, well, entertaining. 

A History Lesson

First, the bewildering array of service, from luncheon knife to demitasse cups, isn’t as traditional as we might think. Most of these items came about during the Victorian era, when that dangerous combination of wealth and too much free time inspired the upper classes to add a confusing party of utensils, dishes, and bowls to the table. Some were functional, such as the now nearly extinct butter pick; others, like sandwich forks, were just pompous. Then, World War I and the rise of a middle class squashed a lot of this tabletop fun. Though some of the panoply of tableware has since been abandoned, there is still an array of utensils to be used beyond the knife, fork, and spoon.

The Basics 

You already know that at a formal dinner, you can’t go wrong using the implements set farthest from the plate first and working inward. (Heads up, though, if you’re dining at the Spanish royal court or with any of the remaining Hapsburg folks, at whose dinner parties all eating utensils go on the right.) That’s why the salad fork is on the outside, to your left. Its tines are shorter; the tine on the left is broader to make it easier to cut through lettuce and greens. Salad forks are also used for appetizers, such as pâtés, that need cutting. Next to it will be either a dinner or luncheon fork—tines on the latter are a bit shorter than on the former. If there are other forks in between, they are meant for some specific dish or course, such as a two-pronged snail fork or a trident oyster fork. If the dinner fork seems really long, it’s a Continental version. And speaking of Europe, a fork is laid in Paris or Amsterdam with the curve facing up, tines touching the table, whereas it would be set just the opposite way here. 

On your right, spoons appear farthest from the plate. Very formal meals might include round-bowled cream or bouillon spoons, but most settings just include a tablespoon for soup. If oysters are on the menu, you might see their fork laid so the tines fit into the bowl of the soup spoon, which is why “What’s an oyster fork?” is the right question if the answer on Jeopardy! is “the only instance where a fork appears on your right.” You may also encounter a fruit spoon, its tip slightly pointed and maybe one edge serrated. 

Blunt knives, like those that we see today, first appeared at place settings in 1669, after Louis XIV banned pointed knives at the table. The most traditional is rounded, with both edges flat. The modern version is rounded on the bottom edge, curving up like the bow of a boat. Watch for the unusual appearance of French- and old French-style dinner knives that are curved slightly on the lower blade side and bear an indentation on the bottom, near the handle, that a modern table knife doesn’t. Dessert or fruit knives have always been an affectation: No matter how formal the meal, there should never be more than three knives beside your plate. 

At the top of the setting, above the rim of the dinner plate, are dessert forks and spoons, bowl of the spoon to the left, fork tines to the right. Why there? In the old days, there were forks for pastries and strawberries, spoons for berries and ice cream, and it all got to be too much. Up above the plates, they were out of the way.

Dishes & Plates

Don’t confuse them. Plates are never more than a half-inch deep. Dishes may be as deep as an inch and a half. At the center of things is the service plate, or charger, which does nothing useful though it used to. It covered food on the dinner plate on the long hike from kitchen to table in castles and great houses. Today the charger is either removed for the first course or a dinner plate is placed atop it. That dinner plate is smaller than the charger. And from there, in descending size, you will encounter luncheon plates, salad plates, fish plates, and plates for dessert, cheese, and fruit. (Bread plates? They’re standard at restaurants but not in formal private dining, because menus there specifically don’t include bread.) Salad plates always arrive already filled at restaurants. In formal dining, whether food is being served American-style, as an opening course, or after the main course, as in Europe, salad plates are often set on the charger and filled by the diner from a salad platter that’s presented. Dessert—the word comes from the French desservir, “to clear the table”—was once served in a separate room, giving servants time to do just that. It wasn’t until the end of the 19th century that the course was served at the dining table and small plates were designed for it.

Stemware

Onto beverages: The red wine glass is, by comparison, more rounded and shorter because that shape allows more air to reach the wine, helping it develop flavor and bouquet; the white wine glass is more slender, with steeper sides, to facilitate enjoying the comparatively more delicate fragrances of many white wines. The water goblet (it’s not technically a “glass,” because historically it was often made of metal or other materials) is usually the largest piece of stemware in the setting.

The Setup

The largest plate or dish goes about 1 inch from the edge of the table. Smaller plates, if they aren’t atop the service plate, go about 2 inches from the edge of the table. Tea or coffee cups? With the handles pointing at 4 o’clock. Stemware goes at 1 o’clock on the right, with the dessert glass at the top, water goblet to the lower left, and wine glasses—red first, then white—slanting to the right or in a triangle so the last glass is on the same line as the first but below it. And always, the glass closest to the plate should be directly above the closest knife to that same plate. Finally, there’s a minimum of 15 inches between the settings of diners. 

So is it all pretension? Or hopelessly old-fashioned? Maybe—but it is entertaining to know what’s correct, and what’s not to like about that?