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Silver Service?

Is there anyone here that has done silver service before, if you have, could you please give me some tips and advice? I looked on wikipedia and I found this:

* Silver service is always served from the left.
* Meals are served to the customer, not plated in the kitchen.
* The guest to the host's left is served first.
* Plates are cleared from the right.
* Glasses are stacked in a diagonal to the northwest, with wine (by course) in order, and then lastly, water glass.

But can you give me any other handy hints? And what do they mean by stacking the glasses diagonally to the NW? Is it northwest from the sun? :confused:

Reply 1

La Trampa

yeh done silver service. what you just wrote there is wrong.

you serve everything from the right,clear from the left. except bread which you serve from the left.
you use silver utensils e.g. a spoon and fork to serve the food. it's not plated meaning you actually stand behind each person and serve them.you silver serve things like meat, chicken,potatoes, bread, some vegetables etc.
you have to know how to pour the wine - always half way in the glass and twist as you pull up to prevent spills
you also have to know which glass to serve which wine in. and also how to serve champagne,opening it without noise or spilling etc.
er...the main meal, the meat is served at 11 o clock on the plate.so that other stuff can fit in the plate easily.
good communication,tell them it's hot etc things like that.

Reply 2

BeckiM

Working in the officers mess for the army i occasionally do silver service we serve food to the left (fork) and clear from the right (knife) easier to remember like that i find. If port is been passed round it starts at the MALE furthest to the left who then pours his and the lady to his right this is then passed right (woman never pour port)
howver i hae noticed that this is different in different places so ask when you start working how you are expected to do it

Reply 3

Vohamanah

Silver Service is fine once you get the hang of it. Once you can hold your spoon and fork properly to pick things up its OK. You have to get the hang of carrying lots of plates though, because you will usually (unless there's several waiting staff per table) be expected to bring all the food and clear all the plates in one trip each.

The thing about the glasses means the first glass should be at between 5-10 on a clock face by the plate. The next glass should be diagonally next to that one and so on. Where I worked we had 2 glasses usually (for white and red) and at wedding we had a champagne flute as well. I even took the time to draw you a rough sketch. OK, I wanted to play with Paint...

I guess the rules depend on where you are working. In the restaurant I worked we had a lot of couples, and you always served the lady first. Generally in my experience you start with the young ladies, then the older ladies, then the older men, then the young men, although that may be personal preference :s-smilie:

You need to know what cutlery is needed with the food. Steak needs a steak knife, fish needs a fish knife etc. Male waiters should usually move a lady's chair for her to sit down, although female waiting staff do not usually do this. You generally need to be in view of the table so they can get your attention when required. When I wasn't busy I had to stand in the restaurant, hands behind back, in case I was needed.

Then there's sauces etc that people may want. You need to know what goes with what: Tartare with fish, mint with lamb and so on. I'm veggie, but I still know what sauce to serve with most meats. Yuck :redface:

That's about all I can remember for the moment. Oh the good old days doing silver service :smile:

Reply 4

madscientist

Anybody know a good place to do a course in this? (silver service course) Looking for some part-time work in it and have struggled to find anyone in london/hertfordshire that does this. THere's one run by a church that only ask for a £5 donation but they haven't gotten back to me (gumtree). There's another one advertised by coursesplus but the number is out of service.

Help :s-smilie:

Reply 5

elaine77

I also worked in Officers mess doing Regimental dinners etc and we served to the left too and cleared from the right. Glasses were diagonal N/W as mentioned and port was always served by a man in the format mentioned above too. Have never known food to be served to the right.... But maybe that's just the way of the army.