How do you plan a shared order and a meze table?

What decides the portion at a shared table is not appetite but the order list. At a table served in the middle nobody builds their own plate; the decision about amount is made once, on everyone’s behalf, at the moment the order is placed. So the place to manage the table is not the table but the top of the menu.

Below we look at why the measure disappears at a table served in the middle, how the number of dishes is decided, the standard portion equivalents of mezes, what the order of the courses changes, and how to track the portion on a shared plate.

Why the measure disappears on a plate in the middle

A dish eaten off your own plate is measured once. A dish eaten from the plate in the middle is measured again at every reach, and that measurement is never written down.

The second problem is the shared total. Everyone at the table can say “I took a little”; the total is still as large as the order, because the table was set to be finished.

So the real arrangement to make at a shared table is not personal but shared: how much will arrive is decided at the outset.

How many dishes to order

There is no official recommendation giving a fixed number of mezes per person; what exists is the standard portion equivalents. Building the order list not from the number of people but from the number of standard portions that will reach the table is a more measurable route.

In practice that means: one main dish for each person and a few shared dishes across the table. Once the number of dishes noticeably exceeds the number of people, the table is no longer sharing but accumulation.

Under-ordering has an advantage too: if the table falls short it is easy to add, and if there is too much it cannot be sent back.

The standard portion equivalent of a meze

Meze plates do not belong to a single group; some are on the vegetable side, some on the legume side, some on the dairy side. Their equivalents are read according to those groups.

The measured equivalents are these: one standard portion of boiled chickpeas, beans, borlotti beans or black-eyed peas is ¾ cup or 130 g; for cooked vegetables one standard portion is 1 cup, and for raw leafy vegetables 2 cups. On the yogurt side one standard portion is 1 small bowl or 200 mL.

Olive plates stand apart. For brined or tinned olives labeled low in salt and low in oil, one portion is 6-8 pieces, and the guideline draws particular attention to the high fat and salt content of olives.

Along which axis variety is built

At a good shared table, variety is variety of groups rather than variety of taste. When all five mezes are oily and grain-based, the table looks varied but is not.

A simple balance is to have at least one dish from the vegetable side, at least one from the legume side and at least one from the dairy side. The rest can be chosen freely.

Where soup and the main dish fit

At shared tables soup is often forgotten; yet its measure is clear. One standard portion of soup is ¾ cup, that is 180 mL, or a small bowl of 14 centimeters, and that measure counts as half a standard portion.

On the main dish side the equivalents are known too: for cooked red meat or chicken one standard portion is the size of a palm, or 80 g; for fish a thin slice the size of a hand, or 150 g.

Those two equivalents are enough to estimate how many main dishes to order for the table. A plate of meat in the middle can be read by looking at how many palms it divides into.

What the order of the courses decides

The first plate to arrive decides how the table goes. Salads and vegetable plates coming first and fried and pastry dishes coming later turns the same list into a different table.

Bread is part of that order too. When the basket comes to the table with the mezes, more bread is eaten than when it comes with the main dish; one standard portion of bread is 2 thin slices or 50 grams.

How to track the portion on a shared plate

The only practical way to track how much is eaten from a shared plate is to move what you take onto your own plate. Eating straight from the shared plate makes counting impossible.

The second way is to build the plate once and not build it again. The amount taken on the first round forms a reference; the second round is added on top of that reference and is easily visible.

Drinks and the end of the table

At a shared table the drinks are ordered together too and are usually not counted at all. The guideline’s daily drinks plan asks for the need for fluid to be met primarily with water; the water on the table going down is the simplest indicator of that.

A decision is needed for the end of the table too. When the dessert order is placed after the main dish is finished rather than while the table is being set, it is usually a smaller order.

In short: build the list from portion equivalents rather than the number of people, under-order, bring the vegetable and legume side to the table first, move what you take onto your own plate and leave dessert until the end. We covered reading a menu in this guide, the table at home in this guide and the definition of a portion in this guide.