It depends entirely on the menu.

In a large, formal meal, the courses alternate: light and astringent, followed by rich and stodgy, followed by light and astringent again. So if you're stinking rich and you haven't eaten for a week, you might start your meal with, say, tomato bisque (a rich cream soup). You would then have your salad, with vinaigrette dressing, and follow that with a fish course -- say, poached prawns with curry mayonnaise. Then you'd take a little rest, and move on the "plat principal", a rack of lamb, perhaps, which would be followed by a tiny sherbet to cleanse the palate and brace you for dessert, which is probably something mousse-y, with a wafer. Then comes cheese, accompanied by nuts and port if you're lucky, and perhaps a cigar if you have access to a porch.

In a less formal meal, the same alternating pattern still applies: light and astringent followed by rich and stodgy (or the other way around). If the entire meal is on one plate -- well, then you pack stuff in alternating layers on the back of your fork!