Fine Manners for Fine Dining
Sit up straight, without resting
against the back of your chair, leaning over the table, or rocking
back and forth....
- Serve soup or consommé in a plate placed on the table
beforehand. Don't offer soups, salads, cheeses or fruit a second
time. Other dishes may pass twice.
- Don't choose the helping that appeals to you most. Take the
portion in front of you without commenting on its size.
- Use two pieces of service cutlery to serve yourself and leave
them on the plate, the fork with the tines turned down and the
spoon rounded side up.
- If your host or a person seated next to you offers you wine,
raise your glass slightly, but do not move it if the wine is
offered by a waiter.
- At the end of the meal, place your table napkin beside your
plate on the table without refolding it.
- Hold the fork firmly in the palm of your hand without placing
the index finger on the tines.
- The knife ought not to be held in a closed fist, like a dagger.
The index finger ought not to reach beyond the circle which
separates the blade from the handle. Never put it in the
mouth.
- Not to be used for eggs, salad, pastas and cakes. Offer a knife
to someone handle forward.
- Cutlery farthest from the plate should be used for the first
course.
- While chewing, place cutlery at an angle without crossing them
in the centre of the plate.
- When finished, place cutlery beside one another facing on the
plate.
- Use the dessert knife for cheese, the fork for cake, the spoon
for cream and entremets (floating islands, charlotte, caramel
custard).
- Brochettes of meat, fish or fruit – Taking care to avoid
splatters, hold the skewer in one hand and with the other use a
fork to slide the pieces onto the plate.
- Escargots – Savour snails in the shell, or preferably on
snail plates. Grasping the shell with snail pincers in one hand,
using a special fork in the other, remove the flesh of the snail.
But don't draw butter out of the shell and don't dip bread in the
butter dish . . . Alas!
- Foie gras – Don't spread it, and don't use a knife. This
exquisite (and pricey) dish ought to be consumed in small bites
using a fork.
- Omelette – Cut with the side of the fork, not the
knife.
- Papillote – Open carefully with your knife and fork.
Using fingers can cause burns and be messy.
- Poultry – Don't use fingers. Remove flesh from the bone
with a knife and fork.
- Soft boiled egg – Don't cut the top off with a knife.
Break the shell using gentle taps of a spoon, shell the top of the
egg and eat it with a small spoon. When finished, break the shell
in the plate so that it does not roll and fall on the floor when
the plates are being removed.
- Soup – Don't blow on soup to cool it. Don't tip the plate
to spoon up the last drops. The front of the spoon approaches the
mouth among French diners, while the side of the spoon is brought
to the mouth among their English counterparts.
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Fish, Seafood and Shellfish |
- Fish – Using a fish knife, make an incision along the
length of the fish and turn back the filets on their sides. A bone
taken in inadvertently may be spat out discreetly in the hand and
placed on the rim of the plate.
- Mussels – Holding the shell, the flesh is removed with a
fish fork.
- Oysters – Hold the shell in the left hand. Remove the
flesh with an oyster fork. Drink the sea water discreetly, quietly
and without sucking, and swallow the oyster.
- Shrimp and scampi – Use a knife and fork to separate the
head from the body. Then, remove the legs and detach the shell
- Use the side of a fork, never a knife, to cut macaronis,
raviolis, or cannellonis. Do not cut spaghetti. Roll only a small
amount around a fork. And try to eat it without making a sucking
sound.
- Spaghetti and flat spaghetti present a nightmare for anyone who
is clumsy. They may even offer a brief word of apology for their
poor upbringing, then cut their pasta intentionally before eating
it very tidily. Etiquette ought not to become constrained to the
point of depriving anyone the pleasure of a dish that they
love
- Artichokes – Use fingers to remove leaves and dip each
leaf once in the sauce. Use the round part of the fork to remove
the cone and eat the artichoke bottom with knife and fork.
- Asparagus – Cut asparagus with a fork, dampen in sauce
and enjoy … whole, remembering a good cook always cleans
asparagus thoroughly and leaves no hard parts!
- Avocado – Presented cut in two, pitted, often stuffed,
remove flesh with a small spoon.
- Chips – Decidedly finger food.
- Fries – Reach for your fork.
- Potatoes and other vegetables – Unless already mashed or
pureed, don't crush them on your plate. Do cut them with the side
of the fork.
- Salad – Separated and torn to small pieces, it is mixed
just as it's to be served. Don't cut it. If leaves are too broad,
use a fork and a small piece of bread to fold them, then raise them
to the mouth.
- Apples and pears – Quarter using dessert cutlery. Hold
each quarter with the fork and peel it with the knife.
- Banana – No monkey business. Using a dessert knife, cut
the skin lengthwise and remove the fruit, cutting it into rounds
before eating.
- Cherries – Pits should be expelled discreetly into the
palm of your closed hand and placed on the rim of the plate. Deal
with olive pits in similar fashion.
- Figs – Quarter without detaching sections and use a fork
to remove the pulp.
- Grapefruit – Served cut in two, placed on a plate in a
stable manner, the pulp already cut away from the skin, it is eaten
with a small spoon.
- Grapes – Serve in bunches with scissors. Never spit out
skin or seeds.
- Kiwi – Use dessert cutlery to peel and cut into rounds
before eating.
- Mandarins and oranges – Cut the skin, remove the fruit,
and eat quarters with a fork.
- Melon – A small spoon is used if it is served whole or
halved...because port or pineau may have been added. Both knife and
fork are used if it is served in slices, with prosciutto, for
example.
- Peaches – Like all fruit with a large pit, do not
quarter, peel with dessert cutlery.
- Pineapple – Cut in slices or pieces.
- Strawberries and raspberries – They are served hulled and
enjoyed with a fork or spoon.
