I love dishes and we recently attended a wedding of a very young couple who had to acquire all their stuff via the registry. That has made me think about “starting” sets of dishes/glasses/flatware.
Here in the midwestern U.S. I think everyone would say a starter set includes dinner plates, salad plates, cereal bowls, mugs, water glasses, dinner forks, salad forks, dinner knives, tablespoons and teaspoons. Later on people usually acquire some bigger soup bowls, smaller snack bowls, and juice glasses.
What’s a starting set where you live?
I’m particularly wondering how it works in France, where people like to serve individual portions in ramekins and things like that.
NE U.S. and your set looks pretty good to me. You may also get a couple of additional items like a creamer and sugar bowl, you might choose a teacup and saucer instead of mugs and the flatware would likely include some serving spoons/forks. I might also think a set of basic stemware would go along with the water glasses.
One package paper plates (styrofoam if the couple is posh), one package paper napkins (designer print required if getting styrofoam plates, optional otherwise), 2 sporks. No cups necessary as all the good drinks come in bottles/cans. The prospective husband already has a hunting knife to cut meat or future FIL would never have consented to the wedding.
Southern US. Maybe I should write an etiquette/advice column…
I think that the definition of a starter set depends on the economic class. For instance, it’s nice to have salad forks, but IMO, a very basic starter set just needs dinner forks. Same thing with salad and dinner plates.
It’s certainly nicer to have the salad plates and forks, though. In addition to your list, I’d include at least one serving spoon and serving fork, and a couple of serving platters and bowls. And possibly a set of placemats.
I have several ‘starter’ sets of tableware. All came with little tea cups/saucers. I don’t think I’ve ever used any of them. I just don’t serve tea/coffee in formal settings.
If you need only one sort of forks then you need only one sort of spoon as well. Not sure if I would fall on the more or less side though. It’s rare (but not unprecedented) that I think “gee, I like this salad/steak/soup, but I wish I had a different size instrument or one that didn’t reek of the previous course”. The rarity of needing a different spoon or fork make it a non-starter-set. Perhaps, to be fair, you should only include tablespoons rather than teaspoons because occasionally I will think i need a bigger spoon for soup, but very rarely do I think to myself “self, you know, I wish I had a smaller spoon to taste this with!”
I grew up in rural mid-west.
I was quite surprised when I learned that the different size plates are salad and dinner, not dinner and supper as I was taught (A supper is bigger than a dinner).
Salad forks?? How hoity.
But every starter set had a gravy bowl, usually with a pouring spout.
Oh, and I grew up knowing what a cheese knife is.
In South America you’d start with dinner plates, soup plates, cups and saucers (which double as dessert plates), knives, forks, spoons, teaspoons and water glasses.
Here in NZ, I would go for dinner plates, side plates, cereal bowls, cups & saucers, water glasses, dinner forks, dessert forks, dinner knives, dessert knives, dessert spoons, soup spoons and teaspoons. As a salad is served with the main rather than separately, there is no salad plate or salad cutlery. On checking, I found some sets like that, but it seems I’m out of touch and many sets are just dinner knife, dinner fork, dessert spoon and teaspoon.
In Spain china sets used to range from “everything for 12 including the tureen and the coffee set” to smaller ones such as “lunch set for 6” (6 flat dishes, 6 deep dishes, 6 dessert dishes) or “coffee set for 6” (6 coffee cup dishes, 6 coffee cups, milk jar, sugar pot with spoon, cofee jar); nowadays unless you go to a specialized store, mostly you’ll find small sets for 4. Many people prefer to skip the sets altogether and just buy individual pieces; this way they can mix or match as desired, and they get size flexibility: if you had bought enough in a popular model and then need more, it’s easier to add the exact amount and model you need than if you had bought a set.
Cutlery sets, a classic “full box” is for 12, but currently most sets are for 4 and do not include serving cutlery. Again, you can buy individual pieces.
What someone gets when setting up home will vary widely depending on why you’re getting it; for example, whether it’s someone leaving home for the first time to go into shared housing (one cup, one bowl and one flat dish is more than some folks bother with) or you’re shacking up / getting married and neither one had anything (these are more likely to buy formal full sets, of which half the pieces will never get used).
Depending on the available pieces in the pattern, you could also make good use of a butter dish and a set of salt/pepper shakers. As far as flatware, you could add a pickle fork and grapefruit spoons.
Probably more important, get twice as many pieces as you think, because you don’t necessarily want to wash dishes after every meal.