At Anne's royal table, dishes were not served one after another as today: the entire table was covered at once with a mix of savory and sweet dishes (the "removes"), arranged with a nearly geometric baroque symmetry. The feast unfolded in two or three successive "services" where empty dishes were replaced. Later in the day, apart from this splendor, came the intimate and codified ritual of the "tea-table": a refined social moment, reserved for the aristocracy, centered around Chinese porcelain.

Under Anne, tea (imported at great cost by the East India Company) became the emblematic drink of the elite, and the queen adored it. In the kitchens, it was grated nutmeg—expensive, fragrant, a sign of wealth—that perfumed both curative drinks and sweet dishes. These two luxuries sum up a baroque table where exoticism was on display.