Service à la française
Service à la française still exists today in the form of the buffet, and remains popular for small and large gatherings in homes, companies, hotels, and other group settings.
This had the advantage of making the food much hotter when it reached the diner, and reducing the huge number of dishes and condiments previously found on the table at the same time.
On the other hand, the effect of magnificent profusion was reduced, and many more footmen and more tableware were required, making it an option only the rich could afford.
[4] The meal was divided into two, three or four courses, "removes" or "services": soup and fish; meat entrées; and desserts, all with various side dishes.
The long account in a letter from a young American lady of a dinner for 18 people on New Year's Day 1852 at an aristocratic English country house,[a] includes "I cannot tell you how many kinds of soup there were.
Service à la française sometimes required so much food to be set out that it was the custom of some hosts to have a second dinner party the following day, using what was left over for a slightly smaller number of less-important guests.
Footmen were beckoned and brought a salver with a glass of wine, and a decanter of water to dilute it if desired.
[13] The “Classical Order” of table service emerged in France in the early 17th century and first appeared in print in 1651 in La Varenne’s Le Cuisinier françois.
Vegetables were used only in sauces or garnishes; they were not served as a separate dish in the entrée stage of the meal, even on lean days.
By the late 18th century, relevés had come to be considered a distinct stage of the meal consisting of any large joint consumed after the other entrées.
Also in the 19th century, relevés came to be served before the other entrées rather than after, essentially replacing the bouilli formerly consumed at that point in the meal.
[19] In the early 18th century, hors d’œuvres were little extra dishes served alongside both entrées and entremets, typically consumed at the end of the given course.
The fish were substitutions or counterparts to the roasts served on meat days, corresponding to their position in the meal but not their cooking method.
[23] Dessert consisted of items "from the storeroom" (de l'office), including fresh, stewed, preserved, and dried fruits; fruit jellies; cheese and other dairy dishes; dry biscuits (cookies) and wafers; and, beginning in the mid-18th century, ices and petits fours.
The drink, the coup du milieu, was not considered a distinct stage of the meal and was not often included on menus.
[28] Meals with five courses are attested from the mid-17th to the mid-18th century by La Varenne (1651),[29] Pierre de Lune (1662),[30] Louis Liger (1711),[31] François Marin (1739),[32] and Menon (1739).
Buffets can vary from the informal (a gathering of friends in a home, or the serving of brunch at a hotel) to the formal setting of a wedding reception.
