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How To Set The Table At HomeSimple Instructions for Setting Places for Family Dinners
Here's how to teach kids, or anyone, how to set the table. This is the most basic way to do it, for everyday dinners, whether it's for one person or the whole family.
Why Setting the Table is ImportantFamily dinners are an opportunity to share and reconnect. Even when eating alone, it's important to create a sense of occasion and a break from the rest of the day to have a meal. These instructions are for setting the table for everyday meals. Click on the picture at the bottom of the page to see how a simple place setting looks. Start With a Clean TableThere are many ways to set a table, but they all start from the same simple pattern. In fancy restaurants, there can be many knives, forks and spoons for each person. At home, everyone usually gets one knife, one fork and one spoon. Small children should not be given knives. Start with a clean table with no clutter. Only the salt, pepper and any other things that will be needed for the meal should be there. There may be a placemat for each person, or a tablecloth, or both, or neither. The important thing is that each person should have a chair, and right in front of that chair, they should have a complete place setting. Where to Put the Knife, Fork and SpoonPut the dinner fork on the left side of where the dinner plate will be. The handle of the fork should be closest to the person, with the tines of the fork pointing straight ahead, away from the person. In many home cutlery sets, there are two sizes of fork. The larger one is the dinner fork. The smaller one is for salads and dessert. Leave enough room for the dinner plate, or set the dinner plate down beside the fork, depending on how the cook is planning to dish out the dinner. If dinner will be served from the stove or a sideboard, the plates can start there and everyone can carry his own to the table with his meal on it. If dinner will be served from serving dishes and platters on the table, then give each person a dinner plate as part of the place setting. On the right hand side of the dinner plate, first put the knife. The handle should be toward the person. The sharp side of the blade should be closest to the dinner plate, so that when the person picks up the knife, it is in the right position to use. The teaspoon goes beside the knife, lightly touching it at the widest part of the spoon. The handles of the knife, fork and spoon should be parallel to each other. Most basic cutlery sets have two sizes of spoons. The smaller one is the teaspoon. The larger one is the tablespoon, and is often used as a soup spoon at home. The Water Glass and NapkinA basic place setting includes a glass. This goes above the teaspoon, just off to the right of the top of the knife. Each person should also have a clean napkin. The easiest thing to do is fold the napkin flat and put it neatly under the fork. This is a very basic way to set a table, but it will never fail to look neat and tidy. Adding More Cutlery to the Table SettingDepending upon what is being served, there can be many different things added to the place settings. Some of the most common are salad and dessert forks, fish forks (more common in the U.K. than in North America), bread and butter plates, dessert spoons, soup spoons, and wine glasses. Click on the link for the picture to see the whole place setting. Copyright Jill Browne. If you want to recommend this article to others or to bookmark it, there are links to many popular social networking and bookmarking sites below.
The copyright of the article How To Set The Table At Home in Entertaining is owned by Jill Browne. Permission to republish How To Set The Table At Home in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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