Whether you’re dining in a restaurant or at your own table good table manners are crucial. One faux pas and you can offend your companions.
Arrive on time, if possible to avoid making your host wait for you keep elbows off the table and eat at a pace that matches those around you. Teenage dining lluxxall etiquette classes learn essential skills for elegant dining in a fun, educational environment.
Napkin Etiquette
One of the most important pieces of dining etiquette is the napkin. Regardless of whether you are dining at a high-end restaurant or simply eating in your home, proper napkin etiquette is key to a polished presentation.
Once you are seated, your napkin should be unfolded and placed in your lap. It should remain on your lap until the end of the meal.
When you are finished with your meal, loosely fold the napkin and place it at the left side of your plate. Never crumple or wad your napkin up your napkin is a tool to protect your hands, clean your silverware and blot any spills. Never use your napkin as a Kleenex tissue or to blow your nose at the table. If you need to blow your nose, excuse yourself from the table and do so in the restroom.
Fork Etiquette
If your meal includes meat mashed potatoes or other foods that cannot be pierced you may need to use a fork to eat them. Using your fork correctly demonstrates good table manners and allows you to enjoy your food.
The fork should be held in your right hand (assuming you are a right-handed person). Hold it with the tines facing downward and curving toward you.
Your soup spoon is on your outermost right your beverage spoon is on your innermost left and the dinner knife is on your right (if it is a place setting that includes a dessert fork). After completing a course, rest the fork and knife horizontally on your plate with their handles at nine o’clock and three o’clock respectively this will also help to prevent accidental spills or messes!
Spoon Etiquette
While the rules of dining etiquette vary slightly by culture, there are some general guidelines to follow. For example, you should never talk with your mouth full or rock the table with your elbows when eating you also shouldn’t clatter your cutlery or gesture with it.
For hygienic reasons, you should always hold your cutlery from its extremity and not use the handle to bring food to your mouth. The same goes for spoons. To eat soup, you should scoop with the back of your spoon and then gently convey it to your mouth.
On the outermost right side of your plate is your soup spoon, beverage spoon, salad fork and dinner knife. A dessert spoon is either above your plate or brought to you with the dessert course.
Cutlery Technique
When eating at a table, proper cutlery technique is important to maintain this can be difficult for first-time diners as there are a few different methods that can be used.
A common style, known as Continental or European style, involves holding the fork in the left hand (tines down) and the knife in the right. Once a bite-sized piece of food has been cut it is speared with the fork and conducted to the mouth with the knife.
If you are unsure about how to use the fork or knife it is always best to work from the outside in this means starting with the salad fork and then a dinner fork followed by a soup spoon and then the coffee teaspoon this is also a good rule to remember when passing dishes.
Conversation Skills
Keeping your conversation skills up to par can help you in both social and professional situations. It is also an important aspect of dining etiquette.
Having a wide variety of interests and regularly participating in social activities can help you find topics to talk about and make you more interesting as a conversation partner you can also learn to read nonverbal cues during a conversation to better understand how your listener is reacting.
Most dining etiquette rules are no-brainers and things you have probably heard since you were a child such as sitting up straight not talking with your mouth full and asking for things rather than reaching across the table to get them. However, there are some less obvious dining etiquette rules that are equally as important to know.