proper etiquette to serve food at the table?

Answer 1

Boring give us a break just eat respectfully like a human should no extra frills the food will just get cold.

Answer 2

Yes, the less interaction people do with handling food is proper and etiquette. For a formal affair, food should be served at the dinner table. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

If you're going to offer food from a serving dish to each person individually and let them help themselves (as opposed to pre-plating the food), serve from the person's left and take the empties away from the right. That's if you're being really formal, though. Most people don't bother with that for informal dining - they just pass the serving dishes across the table! If you're serving the food already on the plates, serve from the right. If you're serving wine, you pour AND take away from the right.

The hostess should lift her napkin and put it in her lap to show that the dinner has started and it's okay for everybody else to start serving themselves and eating.


Place setting:

The knife goes to the right of the dinner plate, blade facing the plate. The spoon is to the right of the knife. If there's a separate soup spoon, it goes farthest right, on the outside of the other spoons.

The forks go to the left of the plate. The dinner fork goes next to the plate. If there's a salad fork, it goes to the left of the dinner fork. If there's a dessert fork or dessert spoon, it goes above the plate.

The bread plate goes above and to the left of the dinner plate. If you have a little butter knife, it goes ON the bread plate, not beside it.

The water glass goes above and to the right of the dinner plate. The wine glass goes to the right and slightly below (closer to the table edge) the water glass.

Answer 4

The proper etiquette will vary from country to country.
Serve the guest adults first, then the family basically in age order, elders first.

If you have faith in your cooking do not put out condiments, like salt, pepper and sauces you don't need.

I personally hate it when some one will add extras first, even before they have tasted what I have prepared.

Answer 5

This site should answer your questions.
http://www.cuisinenet.com/digest/custom/etiquette/serving.shtml