Early descriptions of Russian table service
In 1553,Development of ''service à la russe'' in France and England
Alternatives to a strict observance of ''service à la française'' were already evident in France in the early 19th century without direct reliance on Russian table practices. As early as 1804, Grimod de La Reynière roundly criticizes the display of many dishes on the table, encouraging instead serving dishes in succession. Later authors, including Carême, Élisabeth-Félicie Bayle-Mouillard ("Mme Celnart"), Bernardi, Urbain Dubois and Émile Bernard, and Isabella Beeton, recommend presenting certain dishes as ''assiettes volantes'' ("flying plates") for foods that must be served "straight from the oven", like soufflés, fritters, beignets, and various pastries. Celnart also writes that at large dinners, the soup tureen and large joints are not set on the table, but instead are placed on a sideboard where the servants portion the soup and carve the joints and serve them individually to the guests. That sort of presentation was unknown in the 18th century and earlier. In 1810, the first dinners ''à la russe'' were served in France by Russian Ambassador Alexander Kurakin at his residence in Clichy. All of Paris was abuzz with the novelty. Others claim that ''service à la russe'' was introduced to France and England at the Peace of 1814, as a compliment to the Tsar of Russia. By 1829, “the style termed ''à la Russe''” was already popular among some noblemen. Even so, the transition from ''service à la française'' to ''service à la russe'' took place over decades, and the differences between the two services were not always clear. By the 1850s and '60s, culinary writers, including Dubois and Bernard, Charles Pierce, Isabella Beeton, and Jules Gouffé, began to describe them as distinct types of service that were both commonly used, each of which had supporters and detractors. The principal difference between the styles is the presentation of the food, not the sequence of dishes, which in both styles is the existing "Classical Order" used in ''service à la française'' for almost two centuries.Courses in a dinner served ''à la russe''
The details of the courses in a dinner ''à la russe'' are variously described by prominent culinary writers from the late 19th and 20th centuries, including Dubois and Bernard, Charles Pierce, Baron Brisse, S. O. Johnson (‘Daisy Eyebright’), Sarah Tyson Rorer, C. Herman Senn, Mrs. Van Koert Schuyler, Charles Ranhofer,Presentation and table setting
The details of presentation and table setting in ''service à la russe'' are variously described by culinary writers from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries, including Dubois and Bernard, Pierce, Johnson, Schuyler, Seely, Post, and Vanderbilt. The table is set with candles, flowers, and cold foods. In the late 19th century, sweet entremets, cakes, pastries, fruit, nuts, and bonbons were typical. In the 20th century, nuts, olives, celery, and radishes, or only nuts, were more common. The cover (place setting) for each guest is laid with a service plate (also called a place plate), napkin, flatware, and stemware. The cover may also include a roll or other piece of bread, a place card, and a menu. Salt cellars and pepper pots are placed between guests. Forks are laid to the left of the service plate and knives to the right, placed in the order they will be used, going from the outermost fork and knife to the innermost. A tablespoon for the soup is laid to the right of the knives, and a small fork for oysters or other cold hors d’œuvres is laid to the right of the spoon. No more than three forks and three knives are laid with the cover (apart from the oyster fork), enough to accommodate the first three courses after the soup (typically fish, entrée, and roast, or fish, roast, and salad or vegetable entremets). If there are more courses, additional flatware is brought to the table at the time the course is served. If the first course is oysters or a cold hors d’œuvres, it is typically prepared on separate plates that are placed on the service plates. Johnson and Schuyler suggest placing the first course on the table before the guests enter the dining room; Post considers the practice old-fashioned. After the hors d’œuvres are consumed, the servants remove the soiled plates and any glasses associated with the course, leaving the service plates on the table. The soup is apportioned by the servants at a side table or in the pantry or kitchen. The servants set the plates of soup on the service plates. After the soup is consumed, the soup plate and service plate are removed together with the sherry glass. A clean plate is laid for the next and each subsequent course. For each course, the servants present platters to the guests, who serve themselves from the dish. Foods that are easily portioned or divided, like entrées and entremets, are presented as they come from the kitchen. Large joints, like relevés and roasts, are carved at the sideboard or in the kitchen and arranged on the platters before the servants present them to the guests. Servants may also present vegetables, sauces, and condiments to accompany the course being served. Servants remove the soiled plates, flatware, and glasses after each course and lay a clean plate for the next course. The table is cleared before the dessert course, leaving only the water and wine glasses needed for dessert. The servants place a dessert plate in front of each guest with the dessert fork and spoon on the plate, and the guests move their own flatware to the sides of the dessert plate. If a fruit course follows, the servants remove the dessert plates and flatware and place a fruit plate in front of each guest, arranged with a fruit fork and knife on the plate, as in the dessert course. If finger bowls are used, they are typically placed on the dessert plate (or the fruit plate, if fruit is the last course) with the flatware on either side of the bowl. The bowls are sometimes set on a cloth doily (never paper) or an underplate. The guests move the finger bowl with the doily or underplate to the upper left of the dessert plate and move the flatware to the sides of the plate in the usual way. After dessert (or after the fruit, if that forms the last course), guests lightly dip their fingertips into the water, one hand at a time, and then wipe them on the napkin in their laps. The guests usually leave the table after dessert or fruit and take coffee and liqueurs in another room, but they are sometimes served at the table. The English and American custom is for women to go to another room and leave the men at the table or in a separate room to enjoy whisky and cigars.Variations in presentation
Seely notes that service plates are not always used in British table service. Culinary writers generally agree that the flatware for the cover is limited to three forks and three knives, but Schuyler states that the table can be set with all the flatware needed for the meal, a practice Post criticizes. A first course of cold hors d’œuvres is typically prepared on separate plates that are placed on the service plates, but it can be presented on a platter for guests to serve themselves. In that style of service, the guests must use the service plate for their portion, and the servants must then remove the soiled service plates and replace them with clean plates, often called "exchange plates", for the soup course. The entrée can also be prepared on separate plates instead of being presented on a platter. In that style of service, an exchange plate first takes the place of the soup plate and service plate; but the servants must then remove the clean exchange plate when they set down the entrée, since only the cold hors d’œuvres and the soup plate are placed on the service plate. Dinners in the American style sometimes include a salad as the first course before or instead of soup, an innovation that appeared before World War I but became popular in the 1950s. Escoffier and Louis Diat disapprove of the practice. Vanderbilt notes that first-course salads were popular in California, but none of her menus include them as a first course. The soup and fish courses often include a choice between two soups (usually clear or cream) and two or three fish (usually poached, broiled, or fried). Other courses are presented sequentially, not as a choice, but guests can refuse any dish. In some styles of service, salad plates for the roast course are placed to the left of the dinner plate when the roast is served. Special crescent-shaped salad plates are sometimes used for that purpose. Post disapproves of the practice. At informal luncheons and dinners, the dessert fork and spoon may be set at the top of the plate throughout the meal. When the waiters set down the dessert plates, the guests move their own flatware to either side of the plate. This arrangement is not used at formal meals. In presenting most dishes, the platters include a large spoon and fork for lifting the food. Guests place the spoon under their portion and use the fork to steady the food as they lift it and move it to their plate. Vegetables and some other dishes include only a spoon.Compromise Service, Mixed Service
Compromise Service is characterized by serving each course separately, as in ''service à la russe''; but the soup, roasts, and some other dishes are placed on the table in their turn to be ladled out or carved and apportioned by the hostess or host, similar to ''service à la française''. In general, after each plate is filled, a servant takes it and sets it in front of each guest.''Service à l’anglaise, Service à la pince,'' "Silver Service"
The term ''service à l'anglaise'' has historically been used in different ways. In the mid- to late-19th century, ''service à l’anglaise'' or "English Service" described a regional variation of ''service à la française'', differing somewhat in its selection of dishes and in the arrangement of the tureens and platters on the table. By the early 20th century, though, the term had come to refer to a style of ''service à la russe'' in which the servants, not the guests, serve the food from the platter, moving the food to each guest’s plate with a fork and spoon held in one hand like tongs. In England, this style of service is generally called "''Service à l’assiette, Service au guéridon,'' Direct Service, Banquet service, Restaurant service
''Service à l’assiette'' is a style of service in which the food is apportioned onto individual plates at the sideboard or in the kitchen, and the servants set the filled plates in front of each guest. A dinner served ''à la russe'' often includes some dishes served ''à l’assiette'', particularly oysters and other cold hors d’œuvres and soup at the beginning of the meal, but the other dishes of the meal are presented on a platter in the usual way. In restaurant service, ''service à l’assiette'' is common for every course. Plates are prepared in the kitchen and the waiters place them in front of each guest. In France, ''service à l’assiette'' is particularly associated with ''service au guéridon'', where plates are prepared by the waiters on a moveable table, and with late-20th-century nouvelle cuisine, where plates are given an elaborate presentation in the kitchen. In the early 20th century, some restaurateurs confusingly called this style ''service à la russe'' to the exclusion of the older style of serving the courses on platters.Notes, references, and sources
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References
Sources
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* Brears, Peter (1994). "''À la Française'': The Waning of a Long Dining Tradition". In C. Anne Wilson (ed.) ''Luncheon, Nuncheon and Other Meals: Eating with the Victorians''. Gloucestershire: Alan Sutton Publishing. ISBN 978-0750905282. * Kaufman, Cathy K. (2002). "Structuring the Meal: The Revolution of ''Service à la Russe''". In Harlan Walker (ed.) ''The Meal: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2001''. Totnes, Devon: Prospect Books. ISBN 978-1903018248. * Mars, Valerie (1994). "''À la Russe'': The New Way of Dining". In C. Anne Wilson (ed.) ''Luncheon, Nuncheon and Other Meals: Eating with the Victorians''. Gloucestershire: Alan Sutton Publishing. ISBN 978-0750905282. * Ottomeyer, Hans (1998). "''Service à la Française'' and ''Service à la Russe'': Or the Evolution of the Table in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries". In Martin R. Schärer and Alexander Fenton (eds.) ''Food and Material Culture: Proceedings of the Fourth Symposium of the International Commission for Research into European Food History''. East Linton: Tuckwell Press. ISBN 978-1862320024.See also
* Degustation * Full-course dinner * Boston Cooking-School Cook Book {{DEFAULTSORT:Service A La Russe Serving and dining