Dining Diplomacy – a Fine Dining Guide

This article enlightens you on the very basic tenets of dining etiquette so that the next formal dinner that you attend need not be something that you have to be on tender hooks about.

·         Handbags and briefcases should be placed near the legs of your chair.

·         Place your napkin in your lap soon after you are seated. If you need to leave the table in the midst of a meal, leave it on the sear of your chair, not on the table. When the meal is complete, place the napkin folded but no perfectly so, at the side of your plate.

·         Which side plate is mine? This is one of the first dilemmas at a table. Remember this: b d This reminds you that your bread plate is on the left and drink is on the right.

·         When you are faced with an array of knives, forks and spoons, start at the outside and work your way inwards as the courses come.

·         Don’t touch the cutlery till food arrives.

·         Cutlery should not clatter on the plate.

·         Once cutlery has been used for eating, it shouldn’t touch the table cloth again.

·         Three basic rules when eating: Eat quietly, eat orderly and eat inconspicuously.

·         Food comes to you and not vice versa. Therefore, raise the food to your lips and don’t bend down towards the plate anytime.

·         Elbows off the table and close to your  sides when eating.

·         Never reach out for table items. Request them to be passed.

·         Offer to the left and pass to the right.

·         If asked to pass something, don’t take your own time to do so, for example, holding it in one hand while talking to someone instead of passing it immediately.