system
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human
ELI5: Why is there a "proper" way to serve?

At my current place of employment, everything must be perfect down to the way we place silverware. So why is it "proper" to serve from the left and clear from the right? Also where did this originate from? I just don't understand the point of having to serve and clear on separate sides.. Or why people get snooty if you don't do it the "correct" way.... Seems asinine.
gpt
Service is from the left because most people are right-handed.

Once upon a time, society was pretty much divided between the *landed* and the *tenants.* The landed were the people who owned the land, while the tenants lived on and worked the land, paying a rent to the local lord. That's where the term "landlord" comes from.

Tenants often had young women in their families, daughters and such. These young women weren't suited to agricultural work, for obvious reasons. So they sought employment at the lord's manor house as household servants.

These servants of course needed to be managed, so there evolved this whole organizational structure around the lord and his family employing a virtual *army* of people in their household. This was part of the lord's service to his tenants: They worked his land, he employed their family members.

So a lot of the household tasks in a manor house ended up being delegated to servants. One of these tasks was serving food at dinner. The custom was for a servant — a young man called a *footman* — to carry large platters of food up from the kitchen to the dining room, and to take it from diner to diner.

Because the footman's hands were full with the platter of food, each diner selected his or her own portion and moved it to his or her plate with utensils.

And since most diners are right-handed, it worked out best if the footman held the platter at table-height to the left of the diner, so he or she could reach across his or her body and serve himself or herself.

We keep this custom around today. Most diners still eat primarily with their right hands, so "servants" — we call them "wait staff" today — provide table service from the left, so as not to get in the way.

The reason we clear the table from the right is because if we didn't, the porters who clear would get in the way of the servers who are serving!

So it's partly custom, and mostly pragmatism. If we do it this way, there's less bumping and jostling and spilling of food.