0Dining Etiquette: Table Manners
1. Making use of napkin:
- Place the napkin in your lap upon seating.
- When leaving the table temporarily, put the napkin on your chair.
- At the meal's end, fold your napkin and place it to the left of your place setting.
2. Handling fork and spoon:
- Hold your fork in your left hand, tines downward.
- Hold your knife in your right hand, an inch or two above the plate.
- Extend your index finger along the top of the blade.
- Use your fork to spear and lift food to your mouth.
3. When to start eating:
- At a small table of only two to four people, wait until everyone else has been served before starting to eat.
- At a formal or business meal, you should either wait until everyone is served to start or begin when the host asks you to.
4. Passing the good etiquette:
- Pass to the right (if the item is not being passed to a specific person). One diner either holds the dish as the next diner takes some food, or he hands it to the person, who then serves herself.
- Any heavy or awkward dishes are put on the table with each pass.
5. Soup etiquette:
- Hold the soupspoon by resting the end of the handle on your middle finger, with your thumb on top.
- Dip the spoon sideways at the near edge of the bowl, then skim away from you.
- Sip from the side of the spoon.
- To retrieve the last spoonful of soup, slightly tip the bowl away from you.
6. Food service etiquette:
- During service of a formal dinner, the food is brought to each diner at the table; the server presents the platter or bowl on the diner's left.
- At a more casual meal, either the host dishes the food onto guests' plates for them to pass around the table or the diners help themselves to the food and pass it to others as necessary.
7. Meals end:
- At a formal affair, plates are removed by a professional staff.
- But as most informal meals are served without help, the hostess clears the plates, often with the help of a guest or two.
- At a family meal, members clear their own plates.
8. Leaving the dining room:
- To signal dinner is concluded, the hostess catches the eye of the host, lays her napkin on the table, and suggests that everyone go into another room for coffee and after-dinner drinks.
- The hostess rises from her chair.
- When it's time to leave, rather than detain one's host with a lengthy good-bye, make the departure brief but cordial.
