The World Table

An interactive culinary compendium: recipes, lexicon and study

Service

186 terms, 176 of them from the five atlases (cheese, charcuterie, the bar, wine and the grapes), in the order a floor learns them. Start at the room and the words the kitchen shouts; the Grape Atlas can wait for week three.

The house

Drill it

Ten questions over the track's terms: the definition with its own term taken out. Unlike the menu drill it works on a fresh install, because it asks about the guide rather than about dishes somebody still has to type in.

Start a round

The track

27 modules, 186 terms, each taught once and in this order.

  1. 1 The Room's Vocabulary You can act on "86 the halibut", say "behind" without thinking, and name who is working the pass. The guide keeps MENU FORMAT and SERVICE SCHOOL as two separate axes (a room runs one of each, not one of seven) so you can state both for your room. It does not teach ticket anatomy: 'dupe' is glossed in four words inside a single definition, and there is no fire or all-day sequencing anywhere in the guide, so reading a ticket is something your room teaches you and this track does not pretend to. 4
  2. 2 What We Screened and What We Did Not You never answer an allergen question from the app. You can say what the recipe screen is (a text screen over the ingredient lines, which by design cannot see a shared fryer, a dusted board, or a supplier’s label), and you know that a dish showing nothing means the screen found nothing, never that the dish is clear. The screen itself names what it checked and what it did not, on every recipe. 1
  3. 3 Responsible Service and the Law You can run a cut-off: slow, water, food, then a clear kind no with a manager behind you. You check anyone who could plausibly be under 30, you know dram-shop liability makes the room civilly liable for a guest it overserved, and you can offer a genuinely good zero-proof or a spritz instead of a fourth negroni. 1
  4. 4 The Bottle at the Table You can present, open, and pour a bottle without ceremony, and you know the taste pour exists to check for FAULTS and not preference. You can identify corked (wet cardboard), oxidized (bruised apple), and reduced (struck match: wait, it may blow off), and you replace a corked bottle graciously without arguing. You serve whites at 7-13°C and reds at 15-18°C. 3
  5. 5 How a Wine Is Described You can answer "is it dry?" and "is it heavy?" correctly, and you know off-dry is not sweet. You can say what tannin does to your mouth and what acid does, so that when a guest says "something smooth" you know which lever they mean. 7
  6. 6 The Two Games and the Switches For any pairing you can say in one sentence whether it is CONGRUENT (echo the dish) or CONTRAST (oppose it), and which switch is doing the work: salt loves acid and bubbles, fat wants cutting acid or matching richness, food acid demands equal wine acid, chile is inflamed by alcohol and tannin, sweet dishes need sweeter wine, bitter stacks with tannin, umami makes tannin harsh. 3
  7. 7 The Whites You Will Pour Three sentences on Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling (what it is, what it tastes like, what dish it loves) and you know Riesling is the answer to chile heat and Chardonnay's oak level must match the butter level. 3
  8. 8 The Reds You Will Pour Three sentences each on the Bordeaux blend, Pinot Noir, the Rhône school, the Tempranillo/Sangiovese/Nebbiolo food-wine trinity, and the New World crowd-pleasers; and you can steer a table off Cabernet when the plate is chile or delicate fish. 5
  9. 9 Bubbles, Sherry and the Fortified End You can sell Champagne as the universal rescue rather than a celebration tax, tell Prosecco from Cava from Pét-Nat, place a Fino against a Manzanilla, and pour the right end of the Port/Madeira shelf against a cheese board or a chocolate dessert. 4
  10. 10 The Grape Atlas (Deep Reference) For any varietal on the list you can name where it comes from, what it smells like and what it does at the table: the depth that separates a server who recites the by-the-glass list from one who sells off it. 17
  11. 11 Everything That Is Not Wine You can pair beer by its two families, explain the sake polishing ladder and serve it at the right temperature, run a tea and coffee service that is not an afterthought, and build a genuine non-alcoholic pairing for a guest who is not drinking. 7
  12. 12 The Board: Formula and Families You can build or explain a board (3-5 cheeses spanning milk, texture and volume, 30-50g a head, always at room temperature an hour out) and place any cheese into fresh / bloomy / washed / semi-hard-to-hard / blue. You know why halloumi holds its shape and gruyère flows. 2
  13. 13 The Italian Board One sentence per cheese on the eleven Italian entries, and you can tell a guest why the crunch in aged Parmigiano is a feature, when Grana Padano is the right substitution and when it is not, and the difference between Gorgonzola dolce and piccante. 11
  14. 14 The French Board Bloomy and washed rind on their home ground: you can warn a table that Époisses smells worse than it tastes, explain Morbier's ash line, and stop a guest cutting the nose off a wedge of Comté. 9
  15. 15 Alpine and Iberian You can sell the melting cheeses on their physics (Gruyère, Fontina, Raclette) and place the sheep's-milk Iberians (Manchego, Idiazábal, Serra da Estrela) plus Cabrales as the blue that outguns Roquefort. 8
  16. 16 Britain, the Low Countries and the Cold Edge You can explain what "West Country Farmhouse" protects, sell Stilton with honey, place aged Gouda's crystals with Parmigiano's, and handle the four that behave unlike any of them: feta, halloumi, brunost, sulguni. 7
  17. 17 The Levant, South Asia and the Americas You can serve and describe paneer, labneh, the Mexican trio and the American four without apology or condescension, including why American cheese is engineered the way it is. 10
  18. 18 The Charcuterie Board: Two Churches, One Slicer You can build a board (3-5 meats spanning silk, salame, spreadable and a wildcard, 60-90g a head), you slice whole-muscle translucent and salame in 2-3mm coins on a slight bias, everything at room temperature 20-30 minutes out and cut as close to service as possible, and you can tell a guest which of the two crafts they are eating. 3
  19. 19 The Italian Salumi One sentence per product across the eleven Italian entries: you can tell Parma from San Daniele, coppa from culatello, and steer a table toward 'Nduja or Finocchiona by what they said they liked. 11
  20. 20 The Spanish Cure You can explain the bellota grades and why Ibérico costs what it costs, separate Spanish chorizo from Mexican chorizo before a guest orders the wrong one, and place Lomo, Sobrasada, Fuet, Morcilla and Cecina. 8
  21. 21 The French Charcuterie You can serve pâté, terrine and pâté en croûte at the right thickness with a hot wet knife, explain boudin noir to a hesitant table, and handle a foie gras order, including the ethics question, without improvising an answer. 7
  22. 22 Central Europe, America and the Wider Cure You can place Black Forest ham, Landjäger, Téliszalámi and the kielbasa family; explain American country ham's salt and Tasso's role; defend pepperoni honestly; and describe head cheese and lap cheong to a guest who has never met either. 10
  23. 23 How It Was Cured (Reference) You can answer a guest who asks about nitrites without repeating a myth, and you understand what the curing chamber is doing: enough to know when to hand the question to the chef rather than answer it. 2
  24. 24 What Is in the Bottle For any well or call order you can say what the spirit is made from, roughly what it tastes like, and what it substitutes for, across whiskey, Scotch/Irish/world whisky, gin, vodka, rum, tequila and mezcal, brandy, vermouth, amari, the liqueur shelf, bitters and absinthe. 12
  25. 25 The Cocktail Templates You can answer "what's in it?" for anything a guest orders by name, because you know the seven templates every classic collapses into: sour, old fashioned, the stirred aristocrats, highball/collins, equal-parts negroni, tiki, and the hot drinks. 7
  26. 26 Bar Craft (Server-Bartenders Only) You can build a drink to spec: shake what is cloudy and stir what is clear, jigger every pour, manage ice and dilution as an ingredient, double-strain, dry-shake an egg white, run the citrus and syrup programs, express a twist, and keep glassware chilled and mise within three steps. 16
  27. 27 Why the Shift Makes Money You understand what your recommendations do to the room's numbers: how the wine list is marked up and where the value bottles sit, what a by-the-glass pour really costs and how Coravin and corkage change it, the well/call/back-bar ladder, how covers and turns are counted, what the reservation book knows, and how the tip pool you are in actually works. 8

What this guide does not teach

There is no steps-of-service curriculum. Across all 479 definitions, "check-back" appears zero times, "sequence of service" zero, "refire" zero, "comped" zero. Greeting, timing, the check-back, firing a course, handling a send-back and closing a table are your room's to teach. This track gives you the vocabulary they are spoken in, not the sequence.

There is no allergen curriculum, and you must never answer an allergen question from this app. The recipe screen checks 14, gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol, and explicitly does not screen sulphites. A dish showing nothing means the text screen found nothing, never clear: 228 of 1844 recipes read exactly that, and no text screen sees a shared fryer or a dusted board. Take allergen questions to the kitchen, every time.

Bottles the guide has no lesson for

The cellar carries 22 bottles and 5 of them have no entry behind them, so the track does not pretend to teach them.

barbera · muscadet · gewurztraminer · sauternes · rose