It is 17:30. The chief stew hands you the menu — amuse-bouche, scallops, consommé, beef, cheese, dessert — and says "set six covers, formal, by half six". The table is bare. You need to know exactly what goes down, in what order, and how far apart.
What a cover is
A cover is one guest's place setting: the space, crockery, cutlery, glassware and napkin for that person. On a yacht, allow roughly 60–75 cm of table width per cover where space permits — enough that elbows do not meet.
The cover sequence
Work in the same order every time, so nothing is forgotten:
- Table protection and linen — molton/silence cloth, then cloth or placemats.
- Show plate / base plate (if used), centred on the cover, thumb-width from the table edge.
- Cutlery, laid outward from the plate.
- Side plate to the left, side knife on it, blade facing in.
- Glassware, top right.
- Napkin — on the show plate, or to the left of the forks if a plate is going down immediately.
- Centrepiece, cruets, butter and any menu card.
- Final check: stand back, sight down the table, straighten everything.
Cutlery: outside in
Guests eat from the outside in, so lay the courses in reverse: the first course's cutlery is furthest from the plate.
- Forks left, knives and spoons right. Blades face inwards, toward the plate.
- Dessert cutlery is either laid across the top of the cover (spoon above, handle right; fork below it, handle left) or brought in with the course.
- Butter knife on the side plate.
- Align all handles on a common line — roughly a thumb's width (about 2 cm) from the table edge.
- Never lay cutlery a guest will not need. Two courses = two sets, not five.
| Course | Left | Right |
|---|---|---|
| Hors d'oeuvre / starter | Starter fork | Starter knife |
| Soup | — | Soup spoon |
| Fish | Fish fork | Fish knife |
| Main | Table fork | Table knife |
| Cheese | — | Cheese/side knife |
| Dessert | Dessert fork | Dessert spoon |
Crockery
| Item | Use |
|---|---|
| Show / base plate | Marks the cover; removed before or with the first course |
| Dinner plate | Mains, usually 26–30 cm |
| Starter / dessert plate | Smaller, 20–23 cm |
| Soup plate or bowl on an underplate | Never serve a bowl without something underneath it |
| Side (B&B) plate | Bread and butter, top left of the cover |
Handle crockery by the rim or the base only — never with fingers in the eating surface. Warm plates for hot food, chilled for cold; the galley will tell you which.
Onboard Notes
- Polish everything before it goes down: cutlery, plates and glass go out of the pantry spotless, held in a clean cloth, checked under a light.
- Never carry cutlery in your bare hand across the saloon — use a tray, a napkin-lined salver or a cutlery rest.
- Yacht tables are often narrower than restaurant tables. If the cover does not fit, drop the show plate before you drop the spacing.
- Check the menu against the cover twice. A guest reaching for a fish knife that is not there is your error, not theirs.
- If a guest uses the "wrong" cutlery, say nothing and adjust quietly — replace what they need, never correct them.