As a kid I learned that if you have foods with different brachos in front of you, you should make the bracha on the more important food first, like say mezonos over haetz. My question is how far do we extend this? If I know I'm going to be having dessert which will be mezonos, do I need to say a bracha and eat some of that before I have my scrambled egg? What if it's not on the table yet? What role does my personal preference for the order I'd like to eat things in play?
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If you don't want to eat the dessert, in what way is it in front of you? Would you have the same question if someone else's cookie was sitting in your line of sight?– Double AA ♦Commented Aug 8, 2013 at 14:46
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Relatedly, a long time ago I asked at Ohr Somayach what to do in restaurants that bring you a salad first and only bring the bread with the meal -- did I have to sit there and wait for the bread, say motzi in anticipation, or make two b'rachot? (If you're wondering how this could come up -- it was early in my path toward observance.) Their answer was to say the b'racha for the food in front of me, not for food I didn't have yet, and if that meant I said another later, so be it. This isn't about choice but rather circumstances beyond the eater's control, hence just a comment.– Monica CellioCommented Aug 8, 2013 at 17:06
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i do want to eat it, i just don't want to eat it first. if what you're saying is true there should never be an order of halachic preference unless you actually wanted to eat both at the exact same time, right?– pokemonCommented Aug 8, 2013 at 18:58
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Right. [151515]– Double AA ♦Commented Aug 11, 2013 at 8:46
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2 Answers
These guidelines on which beracha to make first only apply if both foods are placed before you and you want to eat from both of them now (Shulchan Aruch OC 211, 5 and commentators). It certainly does not require you to eat dessert before the main course.
If it's not in front of you, you definitely don't have to get up and go get it.
However, even if it is in front of you, where rules of priority would apply, you still can follow the "normal" order of how things are done in a meal.
For example, a person can eat a vegetable soup (האדמה) for the first course, chicken (שהכל) and noodles (מזונות) for the second course and a fruit (העץ) for dessert. He does not need to switch the order around and eat the noodles first.
Source: ספר וזאת הברכה פרק יג׳ and ספר שערי הברכה פרק יב׳.
