The brigade

Service is the half of private dining that hosts cut first and guests notice most. The ratios are not arbitrary: one server per six guests exists because a plated course for six can be carried, placed and cleared inside the window where the food is still at temperature. Take that to one per ten and the last guest eats a different dinner from the first.

Who does what

A captain or maître d’ runs the room, keeps the timetable, talks to the kitchen and to you, and is the person who decides to hold a course when the speeches run long. Servers carry, place, clear and pour. A commis works in the kitchen and never appears. At a banquet, add a pass leader who calls the waves. Below twelve guests you can merge roles; above twenty you cannot, and trying is the most common cause of a cold main course.

The briefing

Thirty minutes before the guests arrive, the whole team stands in the room with a written service plan: guest names and seating, dietary markers, the running order with times, who carries which course, where the wines are, where the bins are, and the signal for the speeches. Teams that have this briefing look effortless. Teams that do not look busy, which is the opposite of what you paid for.

What it costs

For a dinner of twenty four, plated, in a European city: a captain and four servers for eight hours, plus a chef and two kitchen hands for twelve. That is roughly 2,200 to 3,400 euros in staff alone, and it is not the line to cut. The staff planner gives you the brigade for your guest count and service style, with the hours and the cost.