Etiquette of Service Plates

 Service Plates, Place Plates or Chargers

The service plate, also called a charger (or “Place Plate”), is between 11 and 14 inches in diameter. It is placed in the center of the place setting and is on the table when diners are seated. Food is never placed directly on the service plate and the guest never moves the service plate (or any plate, for that matter— guests should always leave plates wherever their host or server has placed them).

If soup is to be served, the soup bowl (sometimes with an underliner) is placed on top of the service plate. If an appetizer is served, this plate is also placed on top of the service plate. Service plates may either match the main service china or have a complementary pattern or design. Some are made out of a different material, such as silver, pewter, or brass.

When the appetizer course is finished, the service plate is removed along with the appetizer plate and is immediately replaced by a dinner plate. In her book Miss Manners’ Basic Training: Eating etiquette expert Judith Martin points out how tricky this is to do. Since the diner is never to be without a plate in front of him, the process of removing one plate and replacing it with another must be executed with great skill. “This is done by having the server stand behind the diner, lean to the right to remove the service plate from that side, and then immediately lean to the left to slip in the fresh plate.” Yet another example of how good service is like a well-choreographed dance!

Service plates are not mandatory. Arthur Inch, the dining authority who served as an English butler throughout much of the twentieth century, never used service plates in his fifty years of service at great English estates. If you eschew service plates, use a dinner plate for the purpose instead, because, as etiquette expert Emily Post also reminds us, it is proper to always have a plate in front of the diner. – From “Elements of the Table,” by Lynn Rosen, 2007

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia