Etiquette of Service and Soup Plates

“When a soup plate is removed from the service plate the latter is not used for the next course. It is removed when the course is served to make room for the filled plate. That is strict etiquette, although in some families both soup plate and the one beneath it are removed together.” – “Service plates” are also known as “chargers,” “place plates” and “buffet plates” in various hospitality, restaurant and home entertaining and dining circles.

BETTY BRADEEN'S DAILY CHAT

USUALLY questions sent to me demand an impossibly prompt reply, but a few received yesterday can be answered in this column and reach the interested parties early enough to do them some good. The first concerns the head of a rectangular table- it is not at the center of either long side, but at one of the short sides where there is but one plate as a usual thing. I know of no better rule for it than custom, in families where nice points in living receive due attention.

When a soup plate is removed from the service plate the latter is not used for the next course. It is removed when the course is served to make room for the filled plate. That is strict etiquette, although in some families both soup plate and the one beneath it are removed together. There is a strong tendency toward simplicity in the serving of meals save in families where helpers are plentiful. It comes from apartment living, where small quarters entail many sacrifices. There are hundreds of homes where meals are sent up from the cafe and served inn the living room or in a dining-room of a pretentious suite- naturally service under these conditions would be simple.– From the Sacramento Daily Union, 1913

 

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

Table Setting – Service Plates

A service plate is a background plate on which other plates are placed. Since its function is largely decorative, it should be as handsome as your circumstances permit. 

Service or “Cover” Plates, Chargers, Place Plates or Lay Plates

A service plate (sometimes called a “place plate” or “lay plate,” and, most appropriately, a “cover plate”), which is about one inch larger than a dinner plate, is used in formal service. A service plate is a background plate on which other plates are placed. Since its function is largely decorative, it should be as handsome as your circumstances permit.

Service plates are usually of beautiful china, though sometimes they are of gold or silver or silver plate or even glass. If they are of china, they do not match the rest of the china in design, since they are usually far more ornate. In advance of the meal, the service plate is set in the center of each cover, one inch, or sometimes two inches, from the edge of the table. No food is served directly on the service plate. On it are placed the plates containing the first courses of the meal, such as fruit, oysters, and soup. It is not removed until it is exchanged for the plate of the first hot course after the soup.

Large service plates are not used for breakfast, and it is usually inconvenient to use them in homes where there is no service, or in homes where the food is served at the table by the hostess or host or both. – From “The American Woman’s Cookbook,” 1951

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

More Service Plate Etiquette

Service plates or place plates can easily elevate the look of one’s table. “The service plate remains upon the table until the dish is served and forms a foundation plate for both the cocktail and the soup.” – “Service plates,” “place plates” or “chargers” are now left by some hosts and hostesses, until the dessert course because it is used as a decorative part of the place setting.

Rules for the Service Plate

The first handsome service plate, set at the cover at the beginning of dinner, remains unchanged until it is removed just before the first hot course. The little salpicon or canapé is removed on its own small plate; the oysters on theirs; and if a cold bouillon is served the bouillon cup and saucer are removed together. If the soup is hot, the service plate will be removed before it is served, and the soup plate will stand on a dinner plate, which will be removed with it, and on its removal a second service plate will be slipped into the vacant place, so that in front of the guest there may never be a bare space of tablecloth. This rule of providing a service plate between every course is adhered to only where the hostess has an abundance of these beautiful plates, and wishes to please her guests by their variety. For the ordinary formal dinner one handsome service plate is enough, and this may be left in place only until the service of the meat course.— The Boston Cooking School Magazine, 1920

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

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

On Flatware History and Settings

“In general,” says Graber, “the proper table setting in the United States consists of two forks to the left of the plate, a knife and spoon to the right and any dessert utensils above the plate. The bread plate goes above the plate to the left and the wine and water glasses to the right and above the plate. The fork is never placed atop the napkin, but the napkin may be put on the plate. “I leave the bottom charger plate at the table during the whole meal.” – Graber with Mark Kriski, showing 1996 holiday settings on KTLA Television 

Were you born with a silver spoon in your mouth? Or would you be found below the salt? These expressions of high or low social status were derived from culinary traditions. “Below the salt” goes back to the days when salt was very valuable and therefore reserved for the nobles who sat above others, at the head of the table. “Born with a silver spoon” referred to the boxed sets containing a silver engraved knife, fork and spoon given a child at birth as a symbol of status. The child would take this personal set when he or she went away to school or on visits. Historical tidbits such as these intrigue Maura Graber, director of the R.S.V.P. Institute of Etiquette in Ontario. She often gives lectures on table settings. “I have a fascination for the unusual,” Graber said. “I started my business by giving children classes in etiquette, but as I was researching traditions, I became interested in antique flatware and the different utensils that have been used during the centuries.” 

“It’s said that Catherine De Medici, the Italian Countess, popularized eating utensils,” Graber said. “When royalty starts doing something, everyone starts. The knives, however, were made with blunt edges, so there would be no bloodshed at the table during disagreements.” The fork made then was simpler, stronger and larger than those made just for sweets. The first meat forks had two or three prongs, but a four-pronged type was developed before the end of the 17th century. With the fashion of flatware and serving utensils came a plethora of patterns, styles and types of pieces. “They kind of went nuts,” Graber said. “In Edwardian times, there could be as many as 31 different utensils used for a formal dinner.”

“I like the investigative work,” Graber said. “It's interesting to find out the history.” She has found that in napkin ring etiquette, it's proper in the United States to put the napkin back in the ring, but in France, this is rude because it presumes you are a permanent guest. In her silver collection is an olive spoon from the Victorian times that is coated with vermeil, a thin layer of gold, so the olives wouldn't corrode the silver. “If you have any utensil coated with vermeil, it's a giveaway that it's for something acidic, or salty,” she said, “such as olives.” Husband Cliff's family business is Graber Olives, and the couple and their two children live in the Graber Olive House, which is over 100 years old.

Other vintage utensils she owns are butter forks used for picking up little balls of butter, a sardine fork with a salmon design and a sucket– a fork with a spoon on one end and a two-pronged fork on the other. “This was used for foods like gingered plums, that were very popular during the Colonial times,” she said. “What you would do is spear the plum and eat it and then turn the sucket around and drink the syrup from the spoon side.” Some of the utensils she has are very practical. “One butter knife stands on it’s side in a butter dish rather than flopping over. “These are rather rare.” Graber said.

“In general, the proper table setting in the United States consists of two forks to the left of the plate, a knife and spoon to the right and any dessert utensils above the plate. The bread plate goes above the plate to the left and the wine and water glasses to the right and above the plate. The fork is never placed atop the napkin, but the napkin may be put on the plate. I leave the bottom charger (or service plate) at the table during the whole meal.” Graber said, “It gives you something different to look at between courses, it adds color and it cuts down on spills on the tablecloth.” 

Between her children’s etiquette classes, the adult etiquette dinners she and her husband conduct at their home and her television appearances, Graber is busy. But she doesn't pretend to be a Martha Stewart-like superwoman, even though she did have Stewart to dinner at her house. “My next project will be a no-brainer cookbook, full of recipes that can be made in minutes using things like canned potatoes and frozen bread dough. I use many shortcuts when I cook. I have to,” she said. – Kathy Bryant for the Los Angeles Times, 1997

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

Place Plate Etiquette

Service plates or place plates can easily elevate the look of one’s table. “The service plate remains upon the table until the dish is served and forms a foundation plate for both the cocktail and the soup.” – “Service plates,” “place plates” or “chargers” are now left by some hosts and hostesses, until the dessert course because it is used as a decorative part of the place setting.

A Table Nicety 

Strict regard for the niceties of table setting is an unfailing test of the clever hostess and requires continued observance of the correct laying of all the sterling appointments. An item of particular importance, is the place plate, used today in many smart homes. The etiquette of this piece of sterling need cause no worry in the heart of the inexperienced housewife. She must remember only this; at no time should the guest be left without a plate in front of him. The service plate remains upon the table until the dish is served and forms a foundation plate for both the cocktail and the soup. Like all pieces, it is removed from the left by the maid. In many homes, the place plate is returned and used for the dinner course, for which it is equally appropriate. – Calexico Chronicle, 1928

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