The Art of Fine Dining - December 2009
1. Hosting a dinner party is all the rage these days but are we all conducting ourselves properly or making a huge faux pas whilst at the table?
- For starters - among the upper classes dinner isn’t dinner - its supper!
- The meal in the middle of the day is never dinner – it’s lunch.
- The final course is not dessert - but pudding.
2. According to late Victorian etiquette it is not necessary to seat your guests on new furniture or serve them with new cutlery - the best families do not buy these items - they inherit them!
3. Should you ever find yourself having a meal with the Queen then please adhere to the following:
- When she enters the room you stand
- When she stops eating - so should you.
4. When eating a roll - you should break off a piece and butter it rather than butter the entire roll.
5. You should never start eating before everyone has been served - if your party is less than seven people.
6.If you're more than seven, it's fine to start as soon as you get your food, to stop it going cold. An exception to this rule, though, is soup. You can start eating soup as soon as it gets placed in front of you.
7.Whilst on the subject of soup, tipping the bowl away from you is the correct way to eat soup. Also, you have to dip the spoon into the soup with an action that takes it away from you rather than towards you.
8.However, when eating breakfast cereal you should tip the bowl towards you. The hard and fast rule for spoons is that savoury food is scooped away from you and sweet food towards you.
9.Top Tip - as a general rule, you use cutlery from the outside of the layout first.
10.Now we come to a real etiquette treat; how do you eat a banana with a knife and fork which apparently is required by advocates of proper British etiquette - fingers are reserved only for asparagus?
- The method is surprisingly simple. First, holding the banana still with the fork, cut all the way along the inside of the curve with the knife, from one end to the other. Next, fold out the banana skin with the knife and fork, holding it still with the fork, but not removing the fruit from the skin. Then slice the banana into mouthful-sized slices, still held safely in the open skin, so you get circular prisms of banana.
If you still have the energy after all that – Enjoy!
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