Side dishes are used for bread and butter and salad. Food is served from the left, beverages are served from the right, and all items are removed from the right. This is the most functional, common, economical, controllable, and efficient type of service. But if the foods are plated too far in advance, they could run together, become discolored, or otherwise lose quality. Large serving platters and bowls are filled with food in the kitchen and placed on the tables by the servers.
Guests help themselves and pass the food to one another.
If there are eight guests, for example, you must put more than eight pieces of beef, chicken, or fish on the platter. In the most common form of French service, platters of food are assembled in the kitchen and servers take the platters to the table. Guests select food, and the waiter, using two large silver forks, places the items on the guests' plates. Each food item is separately served by the waiter from platters to individual plates. Service is from the left.