Table d'hôte
Encyclopedia
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
loan phrase
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
which literally means "host's table". It is used as restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
terminology to indicate a menu
Menu
In a restaurant, a menu is a presentation of food and beverage offerings. A menu may be a la carte – which guests use to choose from a list of options – or table d'hôte, in which case a pre-established sequence of courses is served....
where multi-course meal
Meal
A meal is an instance of eating, specifically one that takes place at a specific time and includes specific, prepared food.Meals occur primarily at homes, restaurants, and cafeterias, but may occur anywhere. Regular meals occur on a daily basis, typically several times a day...
s with only a few choices are charged, at a fixed total price. Such a menu may also be called prix fixe (icon; "fixed price"). The terms "set meal" and "set menu" are reasonably common as well. This is because the menu is set, the cutlery
Cutlery
Cutlery refers to any hand implement used in preparing, serving, and especially eating food in the Western world. It is more usually known as silverware or flatware in the United States, where cutlery can have the more specific meaning of knives and other cutting instruments. This is probably the...
on the table may also already be set for all of the courses. The term derives from the fact that such a meal resembles a meal served to guests at a home gathering, where the host has predetermined what the guests will be served.
Table d'hôte is meant to contrast with "À la carte
À la carte
À la carte is a French language loan phrase meaning "according to the menu", and used in* A reference to a menu of items priced and ordered separately, i.e. the usual operation of restaurants * To order an item from the menu on its own, e.g...
", i.e. the usual menu operation of a restaurant, whereby customers may order any of the separately priced menu items available.
Etymology
The phrase table d'hôte originally referred to a table shared by guests, where a meal was served at a specific time. The meaning shifted to include any meal featuring a set menu at a fixed price. In the original sense, its use in English is attributed as early as 1617, while the later extended use, now more common, dates from the early nineteenth century.Country-specific practices
Many restaurants in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
convert their menus to prix fixe only for certain holidays. Generally, this practice is limited to holidays where entire families dine together or on couple centric holidays, such as Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
and Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...
or Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day
Saint Valentine's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day, is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496...
and Sweetest Day
Sweetest Day
Sweetest Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the Great Lakes region, and parts of the Northeast United States, on the third Saturday in October...
, respectively.
In Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, a similar practice is referred to as . This has a fixed menu and often comes with side dishes such as pickled vegetables and miso soup
Miso soup
is a traditional Japanese soup consisting of a stock called "dashi" into which is mixed softened miso paste. Many ingredients are added depending on regional and seasonal recipes, and personal preference.-Miso paste:...
. Typical prices can range from 800 Yen to 1500 Yen.
In France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, table d'hôte refers to the shared dining (sometimes breakfast and lunch) offered in a vacation named chambre d'hôte
Bed and breakfast
A bed and breakfast is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast, but usually does not offer other meals. Since the 1980s, the meaning of the term has also extended to include accommodations that are also known as "self-catering" establishments...
(similar to "bed and breakfast"). Every guest of a chambre d'hôte can join this meal, cooked by the hosting family. It is not a restaurant, there is only one service, the price is fixed and usually included in the vacation. Everyone sits down around a large table and makes small-talk about the house, the country, etc. What is closer in French to the meaning of table d'hôte in english is plat du jour ("dish of the day", "lunch special" or "fixed menu"). It usually includes a choice of entrée (introductory course) or dessert, a single main course (or a choice between two dishes) changed every day, bread, beverage (wine) and sometimes coffee, all for a reasonable price, fixed for the year (usually between €9 to €15).
In Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, there is the Menú or Menú del día which usually includes a starter, a main dish, bread, drink and choice of coffee or dessert, it may range from 8€ to 30€, 10€ being the average price. Patrons must specify they will be ordering the Menú in order to get the list of dishes and the special price.
In catering, this type of service means multiple dishes are provided on the table for people to share, a type of mini-buffet at each table.
See also
- À la carteÀ la carteÀ la carte is a French language loan phrase meaning "according to the menu", and used in* A reference to a menu of items priced and ordered separately, i.e. the usual operation of restaurants * To order an item from the menu on its own, e.g...
, the opposite of table d'hôte - List of French words and phrases used by English speakers