献立 and 配膳: Menu content and serving a meal
Distinguish a planned or displayed menu from setting out and serving food. Read 配膳 completed before the guests arrive without adding their arrival or consumption.
献立 as planned or displayed content
「一週間分の夕食の献立を考えました。」 — “I planned a week's worth of dinners.” 考えました takes the week’s dinner menu as its object. Planning that content is a different event from preparing and eating all of those meals.
「食堂の入口に今日の献立が書いてあります。」 — “Today's menu is written at the cafeteria entrance.” 入口に gives the location of the writing, and 今日の献立 is the content. A displayed menu does not itself report the act of serving food.
配膳 as setting out or serving food
「食堂では係の人が昼食を順番に配膳した。」 — “At the cafeteria, the staff served lunch in order.” 係の人が identifies who served it, and 昼食を identifies the meal. 順番に describes the order in this event rather than a universal dining-hall rule.
「客が来る前に料理の配膳を終えた。」 — “We finished setting out the food before the guests arrived.” 終えた applies to setting out the dishes. 客が来る前に places that completion before the guests arrive, without reporting their arrival or their meal.
Content and the act of serving
献立 names the meal’s composition; 配膳 names setting out or serving it. Read thinking about or displaying the menu separately from the verb describing the serving action.
When 配膳 is finished before the guests arrive, serving preparation is what has been completed. Publishing a menu, setting out food, and guests eating it have separate event boundaries.
What is finished in 「客が来る前に料理の配膳を終えた」?
Show the answer and why
Setting out the dishes, 配膳, is finished. The sentence places that before the guests arrive and does not add that they had arrived or finished eating.