When our three children were growing up, we always took them to restaurants on a regular basis, and we took them to better restaurants often. We wanted them to learn how to behave in a nice restaurant and to learn the aspects fine dining. Usually on a trip, a meal at a fine restaurant was included. The children got dressed in their good clothes, and they were usually excited about going to a “grown-up” dinner. We tried to make it a big occasion and to make it sound more exciting than McDonald’s.
I don’t remember where we were dining when they were served their first sorbet. However, I still remember the look on each of their faces. The expressions said, ”Wow! We get dessert, and we didn’t even have to eat all of our meal!” They were fascinated with the small scoop of this icy sweet concoction in
the dish. Well, we had a fun lesson right then. We explained that this wasn’t dessert but was sorbet.
The definition of sorbet according to Wikipedia is: frozen dessert made from sweetened water flavored with iced fruit, chocolate, wine, and/or liqueur. Also according to Wikipedia the origin of sorbet is traced to the Middle Eastern drink charbet which is fruit juice and water. The term sherbet derived from Turkish. Sorbet, which in turn comes from the Arabic sharbat meaning drinks or juice.
I told the children that sorbet is served between courses in order to cleanse the palette. This would prepare the taste buds for the main course. Often, sorbet is served after a fish course has been served. You will discover while dining in various fine restaurants that sorbet isn’t always served. It depends on the dining establishment. To be etiquette savvy, you want to know what sorbet is, and why it is being served. I have dined with some adults that didn’t have a clue what the icy sweet dish was or why it was being served. Some made loud remarks as to the small amount they were given, and some proceeded to eat the scoop in one bite licking their lips ready for more. When eating sorbet, you may eat one bite or enjoy the entire scoop.
After my children’s first encounter with sorbet, they were ready to venture out to more fine dining restaurants in hopes of being served sorbet. It was worth all the effort of dressing up, experiencing new foods, and sitting at the table longer when they took a bite of that wonderful icy sweet sorbet. Their secret hope was that maybe one time the size of the scoop would be the size of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream cone!
Questions or comments are always appreciated.
Ginny Brown
The Etiquette School of Northeast Georgia
Hoschton, Georgia (Hamilton Mill area, Dacula, GA)
Email Ginny Brown
678-889-4814 office
770-296-4159 cell
on Feb 19th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
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