Types of Plates
Bread and Butter Plate
Defining Features: The smallest plate on the table measuring five to seven inches in diameter.
Use: These little plates are used at breakfast and informal dinners. It is optional for formal dinners. These
are taken
away before dessert is served. In a table setting, this is placed on the left side of the diner.
Appetizer plate
Defining Features: Size varies from four to seven inches, slightly curved edges and typically no indentation
Use: Not to be confused with the bread and butter plates, appetizer plates are a bit larger in size. They are
meant to hold bite-sized appetizers, charcuterie, fruit, or cheese.
Salad Plate
Defining Features: Usually round in shape, salad plates come in two sizes: The larger one is eight to 8.5
inches and the smaller one is an inch less.
Use: Remember that the salad plate is larger in size than the bread and butter plate. These small plates
primarily hold individual portions of salad
Soup Plate/Bowl
Defining Features: A wide, shallow bowl with one-inch rims, typically nine to 10 inches in diameter
Use: The shallow soup bowl is usually one-and-a-half inches deep with a well that is six to seven
inches across and is served and taken away with an underplate. These shallow types are usually
the only ones used during formal dinner service. During informal meals, soup bowls without rims
or saucer-like coupe bowls may be used.
Charger
Defining Features: Decorative edges, flat, and usually 13 to 14 inches in diameter, making it one of the
largest plates on the table
Use: Used mainly for decoration, chargers are an optional addition to the tablescape. Place them
underneath each dinner plate setting during a special, more formal gathering with full-course dinners. One
does not usually eat off these large wares but a first-course salad plate or soup bowl may rest on top of it.
Dinner Plate
Defining Features: 10 to 12 inches in diameter
Use: The most used plate during the entire meal, the dinner plate comes out during the main course, after
the salad. Sometimes it is the plate resting just above the charger. Many use the same plates for both lunch
and dinner, while others distinguish the lunch plate as lighter and an inch smaller.
Dessert Plate
Defining Features: These plates are seven to nine inches across and are ornately decorated.
Use: Utilized during both informal and formal meals, dessert plates are also called luncheon plates by
some manufacturers. Common encounters with the dessert plates are during wedding receptions, parties,
and events where single smaller servings of desserts are prepared for guests.
SAUSE
Hermès Mosaique 24 teacup and saucer
Defining Features: Less than 10 inches in diameter with an indentation for a cup
Use: Saucers are primarily paired with teacups or coffee cups and the indentation in the center makes it so
that the cups its holding does not move around. Never use or substitute a saucer for any plate.
Types of Spoons
Table Spoon
This is the most important part of our cutlery we use everyday. It can be used for
a lot of purposes like to have soups, rice, curries etc. These type of products are
designed to pick up the correct amount of food. Shri and Sam offers several type
of table spoons that suits different tastes for different people.
Serving Spoon
The serving spoon generally goes hand in hand with the serving fork. The serving
spoon is larger in size in compared to the table spoon and is especially designed
to serve food form serving utensils to eating plates. The bigger cup allows it to
hold large quantity of food. Shriandsam.com is one of the known names for
several years in making brilliant serving spoons.
Fruit Spoon
Fruit Spoons are smaller in size compared to the table spoons. As the name
suggests these fruits like grapes, oranges, melons etc. These spoons have pointed
tip and they also have elongated bowl that helps it cut the fruits easily.
Tea Spoon or Coffee Spoon
these spoons are smallest sized spoons that can be used to stir tea, coffee and
other drinks served in coffee cups.
Dessert Spoon
The dessert spoon has a wide and bowl like shape that helps it carve through
sweets like halwa, pudding, pastries etc.
Long Drink Spoons
These drink spoons as the name suggests have a very long handle. These spoons
are designed to stir hot and cold drinks from long glasses or big mugs.
Salad Spoon
Salad spoons are generally used with salad fork, when used together they help
mixing the vegetables or salad, that further makes it easier to serve. Check out
some exclusive range of Shriandsam.com
Baby spoon
As the name suggests these are smaller in size and are used by babies to eat
food.
Cocktail Spoon
Generally a bar spoon is a long handled spoon that is used to stir drinks and mix
them in long drink glasses or beer glasses.
Taste Spoon
Rest spoons are very essential while having food, since we do not like to hold our
spoons while we are chewing, so instead of keeping it on the plate, we should
keep it on the rest spoon
Types of Glassware
Barware
Alcoholic drinks are often served in specific types of glassware. Common barware
include the following:
•Shot glass
•Beer mug
•Rocks glass (for liquor on the rocks)
•Beer goblet
•Snifter (for bourbon, brandy and whiskey, neat)
•Champagne flute
•Pilsner glass (for beer)
•Pint glass (for beer)
•Martini glass
Crystal Glassware
A highball glass is a tall, slender crystal glass commonly used for iced or mixed drinks
Darice highball glass: A blue glass used to serve a variety of mixed drinks, like
the screwdriver, piña colada and Long Island iced tea.
•Devonna highball glass: A mouth-blown, hand-cut, cobalt blue crystal glass. It
weighs twice as much as a typical glass and is popular for its durability and
strength.
•Earwine highball glass: Available in azzurro light blue, amethyst purple, dark
ruby red, cobalt blue and emerald green hand-cut glasses.
•Hathora highball glass: A black crystal glass typically used to serve cocktails.
•Luperca highball glass: A cobalt and opal blue crystal glass that's formed by
binding together three layers of crystal.
•Marsala Collins glass excelsior: Available in six colors and used to serve
alcoholic drinks.
Stemware
Stemware is a type of glassware that sits on a base and is typically used for formal
family gatherings and holidays; the most well-known is the wine glass. Other types
include the following:
•Claret glass
•Bordeaux glass
•Cocktail glass
•Cordial glass
•Sherbet glass
•Chalice
•Goblet (often used for water)
Red wine is typically served in stemware that has a wide, open bowl, and white wine
is served in stemware with a narrower bowl.
Types of Knives
The Chef’s Knife
Also called a cook’s knife, this is the most important item in a knife set.
The knife typically a broad blade tapering upward to a point, allowing the
knife to rock back and forward for fast mincing. It’s about 6 to 12 inches long.
A greater length usually translates to faster, easier slicing, but if you have
small hands, a shorter knife would be easier to control.
A chef’s knife can be forged or stamped. Most chef’s knives are unserrated,
but some brands have also started to make serrated ones.
The knife can be used for almost every task in the kitchen. It cuts tofu, chops
squashes, dices tomatoes, and slices steaks. That is why it is the must-have
item in every kitchen knife set collection, small or big.
The Utility Knife
Usually between 4 and 7 inches in length, the utility knife is most of the time
treated as a mini chef’s knife. It can come straight or serrated, and is good
for cutting vegetables and meat that are too small for a chef’s knife.
Utility knives often come with a scalloped edge for flexibility in cutting. It
works perfectly for cutting soft as well as hard veggies, from tomatoes to
squash. It is also very useful when you want to prepare lettuces, cabbage,
and sandwich meat.
The Santoku Knife
The Santoku knife is a Japanese version of the Western-style chef’s knife.
Santoku means “three virtues”, which are slicing, dicing, and mincing.
A Santoku is usually shorter and thinner than a chef’s knife. Due to a flat
blade, it doesn’t rock on the cutting board. This makes it a lesser choice
when you want to mince herbs, but a better one for skinny slices of veggies.
Santoku’s are sometimes made with a hollow edge, which allows them to cut
through meat and other sticky materials faster, with more precision, and
minimal tearing.
The knife is an all-rounder and can do almost everything a typical chef’s knife
can. In fact, it’s used in place of the chef’s knife by some cooks, especially
those with tender hands and prefer a smaller, lighter blade.
The Kitchen Shears
Basically a pair of scissors. Except that since they’re for various uses in the
kitchen, from snipping herbs, cutting veggies to sectioning chicken and even
outdoor work, the shears usually come with extremely strong and sharp
blades.
Some shears that are designed specifically for fast cutting of green onion or
other herbs may have more than one blade. However, the blades on those
shears are usually thinner, weaker, and take more effort to sharpen than
ordinary shears.
The Boning Knife
The boning knife, as you probably have figured, is used for separating meat
from bone, making filet fish, and cutting up meat. It is also a well-loved item
by vegetarian – a small one can be used place of a paring knife for peeling
and trimming veggies.
Boning knives are typically about 3 to 8 inches in length, with slightly varying
widths of blades. The blades can be flexi, semi-flexi, or stiff, with stiff blades
being the most popular among home cooks due to the enhanced precision in
the cut.
The Bread Knife
Bread knives are used for cutting bread, cakes, and sometimes meat, poultry,
and seafood. They are designed in a way that allows you to saw through the
bread without pushing down or squishing it.
Made to cut large chunks of bread, most of these knives are 7 to 10 inches
long. The blades are usually narrow and always serrated, with big “teeth”
along it.
7. The Cleaver
The cleaver is usually the bulkiest and weighted knife in the kitchen.
A typical cleaver has a thick spine and a very strong blade, which allows it to
cut through bones and meat in a chopping motion. It’s also very useful for
chopping hard and thick materials such as squash or pumpkin.
The wide, heavy blade makes it ideal for pulverizing cooked or uncooked
meat, poultry and fish, and crushing garlic.
8. The Paring Knife
If you love making garnishes for your foods and drinks, the paring knife is a
must-have.
A parer usually comes with a thin 3 – 4 inches blade and a very pointy tip. It
can be used for cutting and peeling fruits, veggies, and trimming excess fat
with precision and ease.
The most common styles of paring knives include the spear point, sheep’s
foot, and bird’s beak, named after the shape of the point.
9. The Steak Knife
Someti
mes used as table knives, steak knives are small knives that are used for not
only cutting meat and fish, but also cutting salads, other (mainly cooked)
foods, and spreading butter.
Steak knives can come with serrated or non-serrated edges. Serrated steak
knives are generally more popular, as they can stay sharp for a longer time
without honing or sharpening.
10. The Nakiri Bocho
The Nakiri bocho is a Japanese style knife used mostly for cutting vegetables.
It features a thin and wide blade and squared off tips.
As it is designed for chopping veggies, the knife has a straight blade that can
cut through long items (think eggplants, carrots) as well as make super thin
slices out of cucumber, bitter gourd, tomatoes and the likes.
11. The Fillet Knife
This knife looks very similar to the boning knife. However, there are subtle differences between the
two.
Since a boning knife is designed to remove meat from the bone, it tends to be thicker and have better
force endurance. The fillet knife, meanwhile, is made to cut thin fish slices and thus is typically thinner,
longer, and more flexible.
In fact, the distinctions are so small the two knives can substitute each other
in most cases. Knife makers sometimes merge the two, hence the emergence
of the boning fillet knife. If you’re a sushi and sashimi pro or a chicken boning
pro, you’d probably notice the differences. Other than that, either of the two
should be sufficient for casual home cooking.
