I have too many forks & spoons & knives... what are all of them for at a nice restaurant?

Question

I have too many forks & spoons & knives... what are all of them for at a nice restaurant?

Answer 1

The silver in  "nice" restaurant is placed in order of use.  This placement goes from the outside in towards the plate.  Thus if you have two spoons, and two knives to the right and  two forks to the left as well as a spoon or fork at the top of the plate you would use them in this order.

Outer spoon   soup course

Outer knife and fork  salad course

inner knife and fork for main entree

upper spoon or fork for dessert

inner spoon for coffee.  

You also might have a butter knife on a side dish which is the bread and butter dish.

If in a really fancy place you might also have a sherbet or sorbet between the courses as a "palette" cleanser.  This goes back into the 1800's when numerous courses were served at dinner parties.  You could have both a meat and fish course in one meal.  Dinners took a long time in those days.

Answer 2

There are different fotks for salad, shrimp/appetizer, main course.  Spoons for coffee, soup, or main course; knives for butter, steak or main course.