Take your dinner party or restaurant service to the next level by learning to handle a plate like a pro when delivering meals to your guests.
How you properly handle plates depends on the style in which you are serving the meal overall.
While this article will detail the more common types of service, there are also styles such as the Russian Style, French Cart Style, and French Buffet style, each of which comes with other manners of serving and handling plates.
Still, many of the strategies for properly handling plates while serving foods align, despite the cultural methodology.
Using these simple tips that professional servers swear by, you’ll be sure to handle a plate properly and avoid any slip-ups that might land your meticulously arranged cheese platter on your guest’s lap.
Safety First
While serving guests, it’s essential to consider both your safety and the safety of the person receiving the meal.
For the server, standing straight, avoiding twisting while lifting trays, and using napkins or other instruments to keep from touching hot plates is essential to protect yourself and the guest while you’re serving food.
It can be easy to push yourself too hard when you’re in a rush, working with a more difficult guest, or thinking about the four other tables you have waiting.
When you’re still in the early stages of learning, it’s common to make mistakes when rushing. But making multiple trips to the kitchen is better than one colossal disaster.
So, take a breath. Remember that practice makes perfect. You’ve got this.
Food Safety
Consider food safety as well.
Avoid placing your thumb on the top of the plate as much as possible. While a small amount of contact is inevitable, keeping your thumb as close to the side of the dish as possible is ideal.
This ensures you don’t touch your guest’s food and creates a more sophisticated look and feel while serving. Practicing carrying plates in the palm of your hand is one way to improve your serving style while optimizing the satisfaction of your guests.
As with any plate-handling method, it remains crucial to consider the guest’s comfort above all else.
Avoid reaching arms around the guests to deliver or retrieve plates or touching the guest while delivering their food.
When serving food, the best service is quiet and unobtrusive, whether you’re engaging in formal dining fit for royalty or delivering a home-cooked meal to close friends in an intimate setting.
The English (Formal) Method
Back when feasts were held in grand halls and not in modest dining rooms, servers would often deliver the main portions of the meal on platters.
A server would, for example, carry a tray of mutton and deliver individual portions onto the plates of guests, and it came to be known as the English method.
Because most guests are right-handed, delivering dishes from the left side made transferring meals using the right hand easier for servers and guests alike. Drinks were then served from the right.
While many restaurants have altered their style to match a more contemporary, fast-paced dining structure, many fine dining establishments still stick to the English style as a nod to tradition and elegance during formal dining events.
This method is a great way to bring sophistication to your party or dinner service.
The American (Plated) Method
Today, servers often approach their guests from whichever side is convenient, but those following the American (plated) style deliver individual plates on the guest’s right side.
The staff often plate these dishes in the kitchen, allowing servers to carry more than one plate at once with greater ease. This style is commonly seen at weddings and events, both large and small.
When delivering the plate to the seated guest, gently lower the plate in front of them.
Avoid holding the plate over their head or passing one guest’s plate directly in front of someone else at the table.
Again, this promotes the safety of all involved and creates a more elegant ambiance when serving food.
Clearing Plates
When the meal has been served, and your guests are happy and full, it might feel like your job is done. But clearing plates properly is just as important as handling hot dishes.
Using the English Method, it is improper to stack dishes before leaving the table, as this creates noise that will disrupt the conversation between guests and draw unnecessary attention to the service.
Instead, once the guest has finished their meal, the plates are moved individually or passed to other servers to discreetly clear them away.
Ideally, servers would avoid leaving guests with empty spaces in front of them.
The American Method makes clearing plates easier, as servers can use trays to clear away empty plates for the guests.
In either method, avoid scraping any remaining food into the trash in front of guests or stacking plates to overwhelming heights before leaving the table.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Whether you’re serving a formal meal or a more casual one, properly serving food takes practice.
Plated service allows those carrying plates to their guests to manage up to three (or more!) plates at a time, allowing for a faster pace.
There are many techniques professional servers use to balance plates properly when serving food, but it’s always important to limit direct contact with the guest’s food as much as possible.
Carrying one plate might be manageable for even the most inexperienced server, but holding two or more plates with one hand is readily attainable through practice.
When carrying two plates, place the first plate on your palm, using your thumb and index finger to keep it steady. It’s important to limit as much contact with the plate as possible.
To add the second plate, carefully slide it under the first (this will keep it more secure) while using three fingers to balance it.
Feeling confident enough to add a third? Place the third plate on your forearm, using the lips of the other two plates to secure it. With enough practice, you’ll soon be juggling four plates, five plates. Hey–why not ten?
OK, maybe not ten.
