Once the Guests are Seated

Once the guests are seated, the server's steady but unobtrusive labor begins.  There is a plate, filled or unfilled, before each guest throughout the meal.

The server usually removes a plate from the right and replaces it immediately with another from the left, so that the courses follow one another in unbroken rhythm. At such a dinner, second helpings are seldom offered.

When a platter is presented, it is offered from the left to the guest by the server who holds it on a folded napkin, on the palm of his left hand and may steady it with the right. The server should always make sure that the handles of the serving tools are directed toward the diner.

The passing of crackers, breads, relishes, the refilling of water glasses and the pouring of wines take place during, not between, the appropriate courses. When the party is less formal, the host may prefer to pour the wines himself from a decanter or from a bottle.

If the wine is chilled, he will wrap it in a napkin and hold a napkin in the left hand to catch any drip from the bottle. The hostess on such occasions may pass relishes to the guest at her right and the guests may continue to pass them on to one another.

Also, relishes may be arranged at strategic places on the table, but must be removed with the soup. However, even with these slight assists, the work of the server is one that calls for nicely calculated timing. It is easy to see why  one server should not be called on to take care of more than six or eight guests-at the most-if smooth going is expected.

Let us go back to our dinner, which begins-as forecast by the setting sketched below-with a sea-food cocktail and goes on to the soup. For this dinner, the sea food, served in a specially iced glass, is in place when the guests are seated.
 
When the sea food has been eaten, the empty cocktail glasses are removed-leaving the service plate intact. The soup plate is now placed on it-served from the left. Crackers, melba toast and relishes are now presented.

The service plate is removed along with the empty soup plate, from the right. Now, if a platter of hot food is to be passed, an empty hot plate is placed before the guest — from the left.

However, if the meat course is to be carved and served in the dining room, the soup plate only is removed, leaving the service plate before the guest. The meat platter has been put before the host and he carves enough meat for all the guests before any further serving takes place.

The server, who has replaced the host's service plate with a hot one, stands to the left of the host, holding an extra hot plate on a napkin. When the host has filled the one before him, the server removes it and replaces it with the empty hot plate he has been holding.

Then, after taking the service plate before the guest of honor from the right, the server gives him the filled hot plate from the left. He then returns to the nost, and waits to replace the hot plate being filled by the host for another guest.

When all guests have been attended to, the server passes the gravy and then the vegetables—with a serving spoon and fork face down on the platter and the handles directed toward the guest. The hot breads come next. During this course, the server replenishes water and wine.