Under an à la Française regime, dinner was served in a series of courses, usually 2 plus cheese and dessert, but occasionally more. Dishes for each course were present on the table at once, and although most cookbooks suggest that they numbered between 4 and 12, this number could rise dramatically at grand feasts. A la Française developed from court dining habits of the late seventeenth century, and in its most advanced form the placement of dishes upon the table could be a complicated interplay of symmetry, complementarity and contrast, not just visually, but involving all the senses. Further layers of meaning could be added by using the directionality of dishes, as game was usually served whole, and pies still echoed in some cases the form of the contents. A central dish formed a focal point, and the design of plates, again directional, could also play a role in enhancing the multi-sensory experience. Dinner could be playful, surprising, and a display of taste and wit. It was also involving as each diner helped serve his or her neighbours.

The shift from this style to à la Russe, via a clearly definable transitional style, involved far more than just a change from shared dishes and apparent communality to individual platters and successional, regimented serving. The way in which a host controlled his or her guests, and enforced behavioural norms, was dictated by service style. For example, as the table no longer held food when dinner à la Russe was being served, lines of sometimes vision-obscuring greenery came to take its place. A canny hostess could quite easily control conversation in a very physical way.

Etiquette books played a large role in promoting service à la Russe, and the interplay of taught behaviour vs. learned behaviour is fundamental to understanding the reasons why the landed elites retained the earlier style far longer than has hitherto been acknowledged. By the end of the nineteenth century, dinner was acknowledged to be an important social trial, the passing of which was the key to social success.