Last Updated on October 3, 2026
Are you making research on the subject of Cutlery? Then you’re reading the right post and not just at any time but at the right time.
Tis article discusses what cutlery for beverage service is and the best use of cutlery. keep on reading to learn more.
What should you expect to see in this post?
What is Cutlery?
Cutlery also known as Silverware in the United States is used to refer to the knife and its related cutting instruments. The main items in a cutlery set are the knife, fork, spoon and sometimes tongs.
They are usually made of stainless steel or silver. The two best qualities of stainless silver are those marked 18/8 and the others marked 12/12 meaning 18 per cent chromium, 18 per cent nickel and 12 per cent chromium, and 12 cent nickel respectively.
Types And Use Of Cutlery
1. Knife
It’s well-known and is used for striking, cutting, dicing, spreading, carving and slicing. But there are numerous kinds of knives and we’ll be discussing them now.
A chef’s knife is used for various operational tasks by the chef to carry out certain tasks such as chopping and slicing. It’s about 8 to 12 inches in length and is otherwise called a french knife.
A paring knife(also called a fruit knife) is used for small jobs such as pairing apples, taking wedges of lemon and hulling strawberries. It’s usually 3 -4 inches in length.
The Tourne knife is also quite similar except for the fact that it is slightly curved to facilitate the cutting of vegetables into Barrel Shapes. It is also called the Bird Beak knife.
Boning knife: used to cut meat from bones. It has a thinner, shorter blade than the chef’s knife.
A fileting knife though similar to the boning knife has a flexible blade for fileting fish
Bread knife: this is usually 12 to 15 inches in length and is serrated to slice bread or sponge cakes.
A Cleaver knife is used for slicing and chopping for flattening a piece of ginger before chopping for instance and is typical of every Chinese kitchen.
Carving knife: is used for carving cooked meat or big joints of roast on the buffet
A Palette knife well is not the regular knife you know that you use for cutting. However, it’s that knife that is used as a flexible spatula with a rounded tip and is used in confectionery to decorate the cake.
A butter Knife is useful for cutting semi firm butter, and applying it to food items like bread and has short rectangular blades that are sharp on the lower side to form an edge.
Cake Knife is a flat, elongated triangle-shaped knife that is used to cut pieces of cake and handle them smoothly.
A dessert knife is used for cutting desserts.
Having talked about Knives exhaustively, let’s now get to the next
Read More:
- Food And Beverage Service – Preparing The Table
- Food And Beverage Equipment
- Food and Beverage Service-Waiter Service
2. Spoons
have been in use for a long time and have transited from ivory, gold, silver and present-day stainless steel.
Serving Spoon: this is a large spoon with a round cup designed to serve stews and rice.
A salad Spoon is always used in pairs with the salad fork. It helps in mixing and serving salad.
A cocktail (Soda) Spoon is used as a drinking spoon with a long handle that helps the spoon to reach the bottom of a tall glass.
Dessert Spoon: used for having desserts.
Tea/Coffee Spoon which is smaller than dessert Spoons in length and size. We use the spoon to stir tea or Coffee.
Sugar Spoon has a flower-shaped round cup and is used to take sugar from the sugar bowl of the tea set
Ice cream Spoon: as the name suggests is used to scoop ice cream.
The soup Knife has a round cup bigger than that of the normal tablespoon. It’s as long as a dinner spoon.
The dinner (Table) Spoon has an elongated round cup, is used to eat main course food items and can pick up just the right amount of rice, stew or whatever.
3. Forks
Dessert fork: used for picking desserts.
Deli(Fruit) Fork: has two tines and is used to pick thinly sliced fruits.
Roast Fork: it is the largest of all forks, has longer and stronger tines and helps to pick large meat or vegetable pieces.
4. Glasses
Without exclusion, let’s now discuss Glasses and their various kinds.
Cooler: is used to serve welcome drinks and appetizers.
Flute: It has a long cup and is mainly used for serving Champagne.
Goblets are glasses with or without stems and are used for serving wine and Brandy. A non-footed version is used for serving whisky.
Margarita is a variant of the goblet with a wide round dish like a cup. It’s used as cocktails, mocktails or Sorbet glasses. Tulip Glasses too can be used for serving beer, Cocktails and mocktails.
The mug is used to serve beers.
A pilsner is a highball glass used to serve cold coffee, iced tea, juices and beer.
Nonic Glass: is a tall glass with broad rims used to serve beers too.
The shot glass is a Small glass used for serving fermented or distilled alcohol directly or for pouring this distilled alcohol into other glasses for mixing with water or sparkling water.
A pint is also used to pour distilled alcohol into other glasses.
A sniffer is used for Serving spirits.
Thistle Glasses have their silhouette shaped like thistle flowers. These glasses have tapered broad rims with round cups attached to a stem.
Criteria For Selecting Cutlery Types
Let’s now show some criteria to look out for when selecting your cutlery set or for choosing what cutlery to use
1. Type of metal: the type of metal needed for a service operation is dependent on your profile and financial buoyancy. Silver and silver-plated Cutlery are expensive and are suitable for high-profile dining operations.
2. Menu type, type of cover set up, style of service.
3. Quantity.
Conclusion
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