Types of Forks and Silverware
- Perhaps the most useful traditional rule that still governs a dining table, formal or informal, is that, course by course, you start using the silverware farthest from your plate and end up using that which is closest. Your soup spoon is farthest to your right, your salad fork farthest to your left. As you are served your main course and dessert, the implements you need are closer to your plate. At the most, you should be familiar with three forks to the left of your plate and the knife and two spoons to the right. Today, other silverware for special courses is often served as needed for that course.
- Many dinners, formal and informal, make a distinction between a salad course and the main course. At a buffet everything can go on the same plate, and you can eat your chicken, rice and salad all with the same fork. A main-course dinner fork is the largest fork in the place setting and has three or four tines. A salad fork is a little shorter, with shorter tines, although it is often as wide as a main-course fork. A salad fork can be used at a buffet to eat the dessert course -- main fork for main meal, and salad fork for the pecan pie.
At a more formal sit-down dinner, you may see a third, smallish fork closest to your plate. If you ate your salad course with the salad fork and your main course with the main-course fork, this fork is for your dessert. At very formal dinners, lots of desserts come with a fork as well as a spoon -- including ice cream and fresh fruit. Use the fork to hold it still, cut and eat with the dessert spoon. - Three kinds of spoons will get you through nearly every kind of meal. For a family meal, a small-bowled spoon goes on the right, by your dinner knife, and it sits there waiting for dessert to be served. That's it. If the meal starts with soup, a second spoon with either a larger oval bowl or a round one will be sitting to the right of your dessert spoon.
For black-tie, orchids-everywhere evening, a third spoon appears. It has a fairly large oval bowl and is paired with the dessert fork, both of them placed crosswise above the dinner plate. This is the formal approach to everything from trifle to strawberry shortcake to pie ala mode, all of which will appear on a flat plate and need a bit of wrangling with both utensils. - Long ago, a society matron might have sorted the world into people who knew what to do with a fish knife and people who did not. Today, a single large knife does duty for most meals, with a butter knife set above the place setting to the left. Occasionally, a second smaller knife appears in a formal place setting, to the right of the main-course knife and the left of the spoons. This signals a special extra course like broiled seafood served before the main course. For informal home entertaining, a single knife will do and even the butter knife is optional.
- The other class of silverware needed for a formal dinner is service flatware. An antique store may yield a berry spoon, fish slice, cold meat fork, aspic spoon and a wide variety of other charming but no longer used specialized serving pieces. Whether dinner is to be served to guests or diners help themselves, serving utensils should include at least two large forks, a small spatula, a slotted spoon and several large flattish-bowled spoons. Pieces should be large enough that food is served in portions quickly and neatly, without mess or fuss. Special dishes, like chowder, shrimp cocktail, or chocolate souffle, determine the other serving pieces you regard as essential.
- As photographs and table diagrams show, rules about table setting are not set in stone. So long as you, your family and guests have the utensils to eat what you plan to serve, the less fuss the better. Mixing silver patterns, laying out stainless flatware on a dress-up table or tucking the necessary implement onto a plate for a special treat all add to the comfort of those enjoying the meal, which is the most important element of truly fine dining.