Collection: Tablekraft Lido

Table cutlery is the larger size laid for a main course. Dessert cutlery is shorter and lighter, laid for the sweet course and frequently used for entrees as well. Tablekraft Lido lists both sizes.

A soup spoon has a deeper, rounder bowl designed to hold liquid without spilling. A dessert spoon has a shallower oval bowl for cutting into and lifting solid food. Venues lay a soup spoon only when soup is on the menu.

Seven pieces are listed in the Tablekraft Lido range at Hospitality Connect: three dessert cutlery items, two table cutlery items, a soup spoon and a teaspoon or coffee spoon.

Many venues treat them as one item, since both are small stirring spoons for hot beverages. A coffee spoon is generally the smaller of the two, sized for an espresso cup rather than a tea cup or mug.

Order against covers rather than seats, allowing for pieces in the wash, in service and lost. Most venues carry several times their seat count in table and dessert cutlery, and fewer soup spoons, which are laid only for a soup course.