Service à la française
Encyclopedia
Service à la française is the practice of serving all the dishes of a meal at the same moment.
This style prevailed in the courts of French
royalty, as it made the greatest impression for all the delicacies of the kitchen to emerge simultaneously. Royal meals were a public spectacle in Ancien Regime France: members of the royal family usually had their midday meal in full view of strolling sightseers who watched in awe from a gallery, with each course loudly announced by the chamberlains. This was meant as an ideologically-minded display of the wealth and power of the King. However, unless the kitchen and staff are enormous in relation to the number of persons being served, it is impossible for all dishes to be perfectly hot and ready to consume. Furthermore, it is impossible for the diners to consume each dish when it is at its peak. Thus, modern fine-dining restaurants provide dishes sequentially, so that they may be enjoyed individually: a style called service à la russe
.
A modified form of service à la française in which several large dishes are brought out for each diner to help themselves from is known as "family-style" in less formal restaurants.
The buffet
style is essentially a variation of the French service in which all of the food is available, at the correct temperature, in a serving space other than the dining table, and guests commute there to be served or sometimes to serve themselves, and then carry their plate back to the table. Buffets vary from the very informal (a gathering of friends in a home, or the serving of brunch at a hotel) to the rather formal setting of a wedding reception, for example. The buffet format is preferred in occasions where a very large number of guests are to be accommodated efficiently by a reasonably sized number of service personnel.
Around the Mediterranean, it is common to eat tapas
- or meze
-style, where several small dishes or large variety platters are presented for the diners to share at their pleasure.
This style prevailed in the courts of French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
royalty, as it made the greatest impression for all the delicacies of the kitchen to emerge simultaneously. Royal meals were a public spectacle in Ancien Regime France: members of the royal family usually had their midday meal in full view of strolling sightseers who watched in awe from a gallery, with each course loudly announced by the chamberlains. This was meant as an ideologically-minded display of the wealth and power of the King. However, unless the kitchen and staff are enormous in relation to the number of persons being served, it is impossible for all dishes to be perfectly hot and ready to consume. Furthermore, it is impossible for the diners to consume each dish when it is at its peak. Thus, modern fine-dining restaurants provide dishes sequentially, so that they may be enjoyed individually: a style called service à la russe
Service à la russe
Service à la russe is a manner of dining that involves courses being brought to the table sequentially....
.
A modified form of service à la française in which several large dishes are brought out for each diner to help themselves from is known as "family-style" in less formal restaurants.
The buffet
Buffet
A buffet is a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners generally serve themselves. Buffets are offered at various places including hotels and many social events...
style is essentially a variation of the French service in which all of the food is available, at the correct temperature, in a serving space other than the dining table, and guests commute there to be served or sometimes to serve themselves, and then carry their plate back to the table. Buffets vary from the very informal (a gathering of friends in a home, or the serving of brunch at a hotel) to the rather formal setting of a wedding reception, for example. The buffet format is preferred in occasions where a very large number of guests are to be accommodated efficiently by a reasonably sized number of service personnel.
Around the Mediterranean, it is common to eat tapas
Tapas
Tapas are a wide variety of appetizers, or snacks, in Spanish cuisine. They may be cold or warm ....
- or meze
Meze
Meze or mezze is a selection of small dishes served in the Mediterranean and Middle East as dinner or lunch, with or without drinks. In Levantine cuisines and in the Caucasus region, meze is served at the beginning of all large-scale meals....
-style, where several small dishes or large variety platters are presented for the diners to share at their pleasure.