abraorafa
Member
Hello everyone!
I advance that I am almost sure which service was used in first class dining room (the service à la russe), through simple deductions that I would like to share with you. However, "almost certainty" is not "certainty" and I want to know if anyone remembers having read something about it, because apparently not even "Last Dinner on the Titanic" and the very accurate analysis of some dishes that could be served on the ship, on this specific subject, the book does not bring anything.
If you're not familiar with that term, service designates the way dishes are served at a formal dinner, and while there are many forms, the three main ones are à la française, à l'anglaise, and à la russe. Although all these services still exist, the differences between one and the other have nothing to do with the original historical differences of each of these types, much of this due to the enormous influence of the à la russe service, which ended up modifying the other two types.
Service à la française and service à l'anglaise have always been very close to each other. Nowadays, the difference between the two is who you will be served by, whether by yourself directly from the tray held by the waiter (à la française) or by the waiter (à l'anglaise). In both cases and speaking exclusively of today's terms, both cases the dishes come from the kitchen as ready as possible to be served to the customer. When we speak of these types in their original way, we have other definers. In both cases, the dishes were all arranged on the table and only then did the meal begin - something that is usually directly associated only with seriço à la française. The difference between both types is that while in the French mode all courses (that is, the stages of a meal) were organized at once, in the English mode only the dishes of each course were exposed. At the end of a course, the plates were removed, those of the next course were arranged in place and so on until the end of the entire meal. And here is the first observation: it would be impossible to provide a service à la française or à langlaise on the ship for each table, unless it were transformed into a buffet/self-service, which, in addition to being extremely informal, would involve putting passengers on their feet, in a queue and transforming the hall into a real chaos.
In the à la russe service, the dish can be prepared more quickly so that the customer can taste them closer to the desired ideal temperature. In front of the customer, all that remains is for the meat to be cut and the dish to be assembled (for this reason it should not be confused with the l'americaine/l'assiette service, in which the dish is already finished from the kitchen, much less formal, but also son of the Russian way of serving). Having said that, it is good to raise a few points: if I have managed to be clear, it was possible to understand that today, any type of service that receives another name and that does not require table preparation is a direct influence of service à la russe throughout the world. In the West since 1860, for its popularity. Many thanks... to Escouffier. He is credited with the dissemination and use of this service as the most formal and ideal choice. Interestingly, at the same time that this type of service fit like a glove with the desire to simplify and refine French cuisine, traits of Escouffier's legacy, his agility made room for a new profusion and expansion of courses. And about how Escouffier's gastronomy influenced what was served on board, that we already know well. It is all that I use to be almost sure of the type of service adopted in First Class Dining Saloon.
In this question, I did’t include the à la carte Restaurant, as, as such, the dish arrives ready to be served as the customer chose. We consider it more informal today and many people even don't understand "hey, but if it's not à la carte, how will it be then?". But at the time, it meant that unless your dish was chosen from an à la carte menu, it would have some kind of assembly outside the kitchen, even when what would be needed to assemble that dish came with ingredients from others that would be chosen by the tasters.
Despite this, I am very methodical and that makes me want to find some source that confirms or refutes it anyway. I already found something similar being discussed in a French forum, but the discussion was too shallow. Any help and comments are welcome. I'm happy if I could bring something new through a subject that I love so much. With my apologies for my long text and my thanks in advance, Rafa ps: I'm Brazilian, forgive any mistakes in my translation.
I advance that I am almost sure which service was used in first class dining room (the service à la russe), through simple deductions that I would like to share with you. However, "almost certainty" is not "certainty" and I want to know if anyone remembers having read something about it, because apparently not even "Last Dinner on the Titanic" and the very accurate analysis of some dishes that could be served on the ship, on this specific subject, the book does not bring anything.
If you're not familiar with that term, service designates the way dishes are served at a formal dinner, and while there are many forms, the three main ones are à la française, à l'anglaise, and à la russe. Although all these services still exist, the differences between one and the other have nothing to do with the original historical differences of each of these types, much of this due to the enormous influence of the à la russe service, which ended up modifying the other two types.
Service à la française and service à l'anglaise have always been very close to each other. Nowadays, the difference between the two is who you will be served by, whether by yourself directly from the tray held by the waiter (à la française) or by the waiter (à l'anglaise). In both cases and speaking exclusively of today's terms, both cases the dishes come from the kitchen as ready as possible to be served to the customer. When we speak of these types in their original way, we have other definers. In both cases, the dishes were all arranged on the table and only then did the meal begin - something that is usually directly associated only with seriço à la française. The difference between both types is that while in the French mode all courses (that is, the stages of a meal) were organized at once, in the English mode only the dishes of each course were exposed. At the end of a course, the plates were removed, those of the next course were arranged in place and so on until the end of the entire meal. And here is the first observation: it would be impossible to provide a service à la française or à langlaise on the ship for each table, unless it were transformed into a buffet/self-service, which, in addition to being extremely informal, would involve putting passengers on their feet, in a queue and transforming the hall into a real chaos.
In the à la russe service, the dish can be prepared more quickly so that the customer can taste them closer to the desired ideal temperature. In front of the customer, all that remains is for the meat to be cut and the dish to be assembled (for this reason it should not be confused with the l'americaine/l'assiette service, in which the dish is already finished from the kitchen, much less formal, but also son of the Russian way of serving). Having said that, it is good to raise a few points: if I have managed to be clear, it was possible to understand that today, any type of service that receives another name and that does not require table preparation is a direct influence of service à la russe throughout the world. In the West since 1860, for its popularity. Many thanks... to Escouffier. He is credited with the dissemination and use of this service as the most formal and ideal choice. Interestingly, at the same time that this type of service fit like a glove with the desire to simplify and refine French cuisine, traits of Escouffier's legacy, his agility made room for a new profusion and expansion of courses. And about how Escouffier's gastronomy influenced what was served on board, that we already know well. It is all that I use to be almost sure of the type of service adopted in First Class Dining Saloon.
In this question, I did’t include the à la carte Restaurant, as, as such, the dish arrives ready to be served as the customer chose. We consider it more informal today and many people even don't understand "hey, but if it's not à la carte, how will it be then?". But at the time, it meant that unless your dish was chosen from an à la carte menu, it would have some kind of assembly outside the kitchen, even when what would be needed to assemble that dish came with ingredients from others that would be chosen by the tasters.
Despite this, I am very methodical and that makes me want to find some source that confirms or refutes it anyway. I already found something similar being discussed in a French forum, but the discussion was too shallow. Any help and comments are welcome. I'm happy if I could bring something new through a subject that I love so much. With my apologies for my long text and my thanks in advance, Rafa ps: I'm Brazilian, forgive any mistakes in my translation.
