Part 1: Basic Setting
1. Set the menu for entertaining guests. Your entertaining menu determines how you will ultimately set the table for your guests; typically formal dinners are either five or seven courses. Set the menu, and remember to serve the dishes in the following order: First course: appetizers, shellfish
Second course: soups
Third course: fish
Fourth course: roasted meats
Fifth course: games (for a five-course menu, it's common to combine the fourth and fifth courses as the main course).
Sixth course: salad (yes, salad comes after the main course)
Seventh course: dessert
Eighth course: fruit, cheese and coffee (optional)
Ninth course: nuts and raisins (optional).
2. Pick your dinnerware and dishes. Before setting the table, you need to make sure you have the proper cutlery and dishes ready. You'll need 1 dinner fork for each plate containing meat (you should use a seafood fork for seafood appetizers), spoons for soups and desserts, dinner knives for entrees, butter, and fish (if provided), plates for butter, breads, and you'll need to pick out cups (there are water, white wine, red wine, and champagne glasses to choose from). Each dish is brought out of the kitchen on its own plate, so don't worry about how it's presented.
Prepare the table with a tablecloth and napkin rings for extra decoration.
3. Set the plates. Placed in the center of the tableware is the dinner plate. This is the large plate that goes on the bottom of the plate used when each course is served. The dinner plate cannot be removed until the main course is finished, so it should be removed along with the main course plate. Place the dinner plate in the center. The second plate that should be placed is the butter and bread plate. This should be placed at the top left of the dinner plate. When you remove the plate before the main course, keep the dinner plate and take the other empty plates away.
You should offer your guests an assortment of bread, which is the purpose of preparing the bread and butter plate.
Your napkins should be placed on top of the dinner plates.
4. Arrange the cutlery. While the scene of 3 dinner forks, 2 dinner knives, and 2 spoons may seem rather intimidating, their placement is actually fairly simple. Since you use the cutlery from the outside in. Therefore, you should place the fish fork, salad fork, and main meal fork in order on the left side of the dinner plate. On the right side of the plate, you should place the formal dinner knife, fish knife, and soup spoon in that order. Directly above the level of the plate, you should place the dessert spoon or dessert fork. The butter knife should be placed diagonally on the butter and bread plate. Remove every set of cutlery from the table once it has been used.
If you are not serving fish, there is no need for fish knives and forks on the table.
If you are serving shellfish as an appetizer, the shellfish fork should be placed to the right of the spoon. This is the only fork that is placed on the right side of the table. #*The distance between plates should be equal.
5. Arrange the wine glasses. Wine glasses vary according to the dinner menu. It is customary to have at least one water glass and one wine glass, but there are exceptions. Place the water glass directly above the dinner knife, in the same line as the bread and butter plate. Add the wine glass to the right of the water glass, usually directly above the spoon. If you are adding a third glass (for a different wine), it should be placed directly above, between the water glass and the first wine glass. Champagne glasses are also optional and should be placed directly above and to the right of the first wine glass. Like tableware, wine glasses should be placed in the order in which they will be used.
Water glasses are usually filled with water, while wine and champagne are poured one after another as they are served.
If you choose to serve coffee (on a nine-course menu), it should be served last in a small coffee cup (an espresso cup), with the fruit and cheese plates removed.
Part 2: Adjusting each course placement
1. Set the table for soup. Soup is the first course, and there are 2 ways to serve it: bring bowls with the same soup out of the kitchen, or offer water or cream soup and serve the soup in new bowls at the table. The last is to serve the soup (carefully) in clean bowls at the table. To prevent spills, soup bowls should be padded with a plate before serving. When the guests have all finished their soup, the spoon should be placed (bowl side up) to the right of the bowl, on top of the plate. Plates, bowls and spoons should be removed after the first course.
Even if butter has been used in the soup, the bread and butter plate should remain on the table.
2. Set the table with the fish. After the soup is removed, the fish should be served on a special fish plate. This dish should be placed on the dinner plate and eaten with a fish knife and fish fork (the utensil furthest from the dinner plate). When the fish is finished, the fish knife and fork should be placed diagonally on the plate, comparing the plate to a clock with the handle of the knife and fork facing four o'clock.
3. Set the table for the main course. The entree should be served on the end of a large preheated plate. This dish should be placed on a dinner plate and eaten with a formal dinner fork formal dinner knife. When all the guests have finished the main course, you can remove the plate with the dinner plate, the formal dinner knife, and the formal dinner fork. The forks and knives are usually placed diagonally on the plate, in the same way as the harpoons and knives.
4. Set the table salad. Salads are usually served after the main course at a formal dinner. The dinner plates have been removed and the salad plate can be placed in the center of the original dinner plate. The last remaining fork should be used for this dish. When the salad has been served, the salad plate, the salad fork, and the bread and butter plate on which the butter fork was placed, as well as the wine and champagne glasses, should be removed. Only water glasses and dessert spoons (or dessert forks) should remain.
5. Set the table for dessert. Unless you're preparing a very formal nine-course meal, the last course of dinner is usually dessert and coffee. In any case, the dessert should be served on a platter in the center of the table, and a small coffee or tea cup should be placed to the right of the dessert, below the water glass, with a teaspoon. If desired, cream and sugar may be placed on the table for coffee or tea. When the dessert is eaten, all plates should be removed, leaving a clean table.
TipChoose low-key decorations. You also don't want the meal to detract from your guests' impressions of each other and their conversations.
Unless it's a very formal dinner, don't be afraid to mix and match for the average dinner party if you don't have enough matching tableware. Mixing and matching is becoming more and more popular.
The most important thing to remember when setting the table is to make sure your guests are comfortable. As dinners have become more casual, it's become extra fun to go all out and prepare a formal dinner. However, don't lose sight of whether your guests are comfortable and your own enjoyment (that's usually why we host). If you don't have formal dining equipment, you can rent or improvise. Some great looking tables are the result of improvisation using unexpected materials.