In the restaurant industry, gueridon service or tableside service is the cooking or finishing of foods by a waiter (or

maître d'hôtel The ''maître d'hôtel'' (; ), head waiter, host, waiter captain, or ''maître d ( , ) manages the public part, or "front of the house", of a formal restaurant. The responsibilities of a ''maître d'hôtel'' generally include supervising the wa ...

) at the diner's table, typically from a special

serving cart A serving cart is a kind of smaller food cart. It is typically used by restaurants to deliver or display food. Serving carts are also used in households, airplanes, and trains. Types * Dessert cart (known as a sweet trolley in the UK) – This is ...

called a ''guéridon'' trolley. This type of service is implemented in

fine dining Fine may refer to: Characters * Sylvia Fine (''The Nanny''), Fran's mother on ''The Nanny'' * Officer Fine, a character in ''Tales from the Crypt'', played by Vincent Spano Legal terms * Fine (penalty), money to be paid as punishment for an offe ...

restaurants A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearanc ...

where the average spending power is higher, and

a la carte A, or a, is the first Letter (alphabet), letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name ...

menu In a restaurant, the menu is a list of food and beverages offered to customers and the prices. A menu may be à la carte – which presents a list of options from which customers choose – or table d'hôte, in which case a pre-established seque ...

is offered. Gueridon service offer a higher style of service to the guest. It is similar to

service à la russe The historical form of (; "service in the Russian style") is a manner of dining that involves courses being brought to the table sequentially, and the food being portioned on the plate by the waiter (usually at a sideboard in the dining room) bef ...

, where ''every'' dish is portioned by a waiter tableside, but usually involves additional cooking steps. Table side procedures include: *

Flambé :''Flambé is also a type of ceramic glaze.'' Flambé (, , ; also spelled flambe) is a cooking procedure in which alcohol is added to a hot pan to create a burst of flames. The word means "flamed" in French. Flambéing is often associated with t ...

ing of dishes such as

crêpes Suzette Crêpes Suzette () is a French dessert consisting of crêpes with ''beurre Suzette'' (), a sauce of caramelized sugar and butter, tangerine or orange juice, zest, and Grand Marnier, triple sec or orange Curaçao liqueur on top, flambéed tables ...

bananas Foster Bananas Foster is a dessert made from bananas and vanilla ice cream, with a sauce made from butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, dark rum, and banana liqueur. The butter, sugar and bananas are cooked, and then alcohol is added and ignited. The bananas ...

cherries Jubilee Cherries jubilee is a dessert dish made with cherries and liqueur (typically kirschwasser), which are flambéed tableside, and commonly served as a sauce over vanilla ice cream. The recipe is generally credited to Auguste Escoffier, who prepa ...

, or Chicago-style

saganaki In Greek cuisine, saganaki (Greek σαγανάκι) is any one of a variety of dishes prepared in a small frying pan, the best-known being an appetizer of fried cheese. It is commonly flambéed in North America. Etymology The dishes are named ...

; * Mixing or tossing salads such as

Caesar salad A Caesar salad (also spelled Cesar and Cesare) is a green salad of romaine lettuce and croutons dressed with lemon juice (or lime juice), olive oil, egg, Worcestershire sauce, anchovies, garlic, Dijon mustard, Parmesan cheese, and black pepper ...

; * Quick pan-frying and preparation of a pan sauce, as with

steak Diane Steak Diane is a dish of pan-fried beefsteak with a sauce made from the seasoned pan juices. It was originally cooked tableside and sometimes flambéed. It was probably invented in London in the 1930s. From the 1940s to the 1960s it was a stand ...

; * Boning and plating fish; * Preparing

guacamole Guacamole (; (informally shortened to ''guac'' in the United States since the 1980s) is an avocado-based dip, spread, or salad first developed in Mexico. In addition to its use in modern Mexican cuisine, it has become part of international cuisi ...

in a

molcajete A ''molcajete'' (; Mexican Spanish, from Nahuatl ''molcaxitl'') and ''tejolote'' are stone tools, the traditional Mexican version of the mortar and pestle, similar to the South American batan, used for grinding various food products. Descript ...

; * Carving meat or poultry - specifically, carving a whole Peking Duck into bite-size skin- and meat pieces before serving each guest at the table. Conclusively, the juices may be extracted in a designated press and served on the side. * Final preparation of a pasta dish, as with

fettuccine Alfredo Fettuccine Alfredo () or fettuccine al burro ("fettuccine with butter") is an Italian cuisine, Italian pasta dish of Pasta#Fresh, fresh fettuccine tossed with butter and Parmigiano-Reggiano, Parmesan cheese ('' it, pasta al burro e parmigiano''). ...

; * Preparing a

compound butter Compound butters (french: beurre composé, pl. ''beurres composés'') are mixtures of butter and supplementary ingredients. Primarily, they are used to enhance flavor in various dishes, in a fashion similar to a sauce.Auguste Escoffier (1903), ...

, such as ''

beurre maître d'hôtel Beurre maître d'hôtel, also referred to as maître d'hôtel butter, is a type of compound butter ( French: "beurre composé") of French origin, prepared with butter, parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper. It is a savory butter that is used on ...

''.

Gueridon trolley

A gueridon trolley typically has a gas burner with a

chafing dish A chafing dish is a metal cooking or serving pan on a stand with an alcohol burner holding chafing fuel below it. It is used for cooking at table, notably in Gueridon service, or as a food warmer for keeping dishes at a buffet warm. Historica ...

for cooking or heating food and a cupboard for the necessary ingredients, which may include

condiments A condiment is a preparation that is added to food, typically after cooking, to impart a specific flavor, to enhance the flavor, or to complement the dish. A table condiment or table sauce is more specifically a condiment that is served separate ...

liquor Liquor (or a spirit) is an alcoholic drink produced by distillation of grains, fruits, vegetables, or sugar, that have already gone through alcoholic fermentation. Other terms for liquor include: spirit drink, distilled beverage or hard ...

cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...

butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condiment ...

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

, and other ingredients; and service equipment such as knives, spoons, platters, and so on.Tracey Dalton, ''The Food and Beverage Handbook'', 2004, , p. 60-61

Bibliography

* John Fuller, ''Guéridon and Lamp Cookery: A Complete Guide to Side-table and Flambé Service'', Athens Book Company, 1964

Notes

Serving and dining Table-cooked dishes {{food-stub