Cutlery and Its Placement

A full-course setting has a piece of cutlery for each course. Forks sit to the left of the plate and knives to the right, arranged from the outside in by the order the courses arrive. Knife blades face the plate. Since soup needs no fork, the soup spoon sits on the right only, alongside the knives. It follows the course order too: if soup comes after an appetizer, it sits just inside the appetizer knife; if the meal starts with soup, it is outermost.

The dessert spoon and fork lie across the top of the plate. The spoon’s handle points right and the fork’s handle points left, so each is within reach of the hand that uses it. The butter knife rests on the bread plate at the upper left and is used for buttering your bread.

Some restaurants bring or clear cutlery as each course is served. Even if the setting looks different, the logic stays the same: work from the outside in, forks on the left, knives on the right.