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Meals |
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Meals |
Components and courses |
Related concepts |
![]() A European/American 13 course table setting | |
Type | Meal |
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Course | At least three |
A full-course dinner is a meal with multiple courses, almost invariably eaten in the evening or afternoon. Most Western-world multicourse meals follow a standard sequence, influenced by traditional French haute cuisine.[citation needed] It commonly begins with an appetizer, followed by the main course, the salad course, and eventually the dessert, but the exact sequence varies widely. Full-course dinners are generally very formal as well as very expensive, and can have as few as 3 or as many as 21 courses.[citation needed] Some major styles include service à la russe and service à la française.
The idea of traditional, ritualized multi-course meals dates back to at least Ancient Rome, where the meal began with the gustatio, a variety of herbs and hors d'oeuvres, then continued to three main courses, and finished with a dessert.[1]