Do you 'dish up'?

[goodasgold]

Or do you serve food in dishes and let people help themselves?

What do you think people prefer?

depends who for - if its just my own family, I dish up so I know how much the kids are getting/leaving. (and in the case of my brothers who are in their 40s so they don't take all the spuds) For DHs family I always let them serve themselves as I consider it to be a bit posher.

Probably tells you more about us than it does about the etiquette - Fwiw DHs family are fairly posh and they dish up the meat, but you help yourself to veg. They dish up pud.

Depends. For a regular family meal it is usually dished up in the kitchen, unless it's one of those picky meals where people choose what they want.

If I'm cooking a big meal for loads of family, or have friends for dinner it's a bit more formal, and I tend to put dishes out on the table so they can choose what they want.

I dish up for the 4 of us but always put things in serving dishes for guests. Always dish up pudding tho, no idea why

I dish up for us at home or if FIL staying for tea unless its something like fahitas or pizza etc. When we have guests I put it on table so they can help themselves.

Always serving dishes, then people can have as much or as little as they want.

Serving dishes, except if I am cooking something to be eaten on our laps in the sitting room, in that case I dish up.

Much prefer serving dishes.

Ditto Vixsatis: the dc seem to eat more veg this way :)

Just dump the pots on the table Serving dishes, as I prefer to give the DCs a little bit and let them go back for seconds if they want. They're all good eaters, though, so I know that doesn't work for everyone. And it does lead to DD3 (3yo) demanding more of the bits she likes before finishing her less favoured bits of the meal (usually the potatoes).

oh yes, I say serving dishes. I actually mean saucepans in most cases

Serving dishes, then people people can take how much they actually want. I had two DCs who would eat anything and one who had lots of issues with food (although he's much better now) There was a lot less stress at meal times once I gave him the independence to sort his own food out - he ate better when he didn't feel pressured by a plate full of food.

DH comes from a dishing up family. I come from a serving dishes family. It is a big issue .

if it's just I and the rest of the brood, I dish up

If I have guests for dinner I serve up in dishes and they help themselves

I asked because whenever we have people round my dh asks whether it will be a 'help yourself jobby', but nine times out of ten even if it is just us eating we serve ourselves. So surely it follows that when there are more people it's a given.

We talk about this. Welcome to my world.

I dish up if it's just us at home. Less washing up

I hate 'dishing up' but nearly always do.

DC eat much better if we have serving dishes, especially if there's lot's of stuff to choose from.

I would feel ridiculous though, putting out dishes of battered fish and chips or sausages and mash.

We do have lots of little (gu) ramekins for cheese, salad and colslaw.

If its just me and the kids, we tend to eat in the kitchen and I dish up. At weekends when DH is about we often eat in the dining room and I pull the serving dishes out of the back of the cupboard. The kids quite like both, DS enjoys a more formal lunch at weekends and choosing his food but also says he couldn't be bothered all the time, he likes to eat as fast as possible to preserve valuable cricket watching time.

One downside of serving yourself is that DD, who is a little on the plump side, just goes on and on serving herself, and then does it again... I don't want to cause issues and start saying no to her, but I do feel I can keep her portion sizes under control when I dish up, so perhaps for us it does make sense to dish up most days.

I've just realised what it is about "Come Dine With Me" that I find irritating: they all dish up.
anthony (interesting name?) I take your point on portion control. I sometimes see DH (not slender) helping himself to that fourth potato and wonder if I should start not just dishing up but producing artful Nouvelle cuisine arrangements comprising a carrot and two slices of avocado

Same here, Himalaya. I had never even heard the term "dish up" until I was in my early 30's. TBH, it still makes me shudder.

I would never dream of putting food on an adult's plate - to me, its the height of bad manners, and presumption - how do you know what they like, how much they want, how hungry they are, what their favourite thing on offer is?

I do it for the DC's during the week, usually, but never at the weekend when we sit down together.

MIL dishes up for everyone, children and adults. Different sized plates for men/women/children

Funny how it is seen as posher to let people help themselves, but in really posh restaurants your meal comes "plated".

bigTillyMint I would be so shocked if somebody gave me a different size plate to my dh.

TBH, I am generally relieved to not have to eat so much of the heart-attack inducing meals she often serves up

If there are people around it's nicer to let them help themselves - but that assumes that you are eating something that lends itself to serving dishes (and not fish&chips as mentioned above).

MIL " doles out" in different portion sizes too. DH has started to use this phrase!
We generally serve ourselves and let our guests do the same. My parents do this too ...