Are your dining skills polished?  Can you go into a five star restaurant and handle yourself with ease and grace?  We all want to know the rules of etiquette while dining.  We don’t want to appear unpolished.  There are a few basic tips that are easy to remember.  I’ll talk about some of them in this message.

Recently, my younger son asked me a dining question.  He had been to a fine restaurant and wanted to know what he was supposed to do with his napkin when he excused himself to visit the men’s room.  He said he put his napkin on the table of the left side of the plate not on top of any silverware.  There was a discussion about this at the table, and no one was really sure what was correct.  In my experience, I teach putting the napkin exactly where he did.  I don’t  recommend putting it on the chair.  One of the uses of that napkin is to wipe your mouth.  You don’t know how clean the seat of that chair is.   What you don’t know is that workmen could have been standing in the chair that afternoon doing some cleaning.  So, I think it’s better just to lay the napkin to the left of the plate. 

I receive a lot of questions from young adults who are now in the finer dating stage of their life.  It’s not always pizza and beer or that fabulous burger with homemade fries.  They are wanting to experience something different and impress their date with a fine dining experience.  Another question I have been asked is where  does the female sit?  Is she seated to your left of to your right?  The lady is always seated to a man’s right.

As  I mentioned in the article What Would You Do,  start from the outside when choosing utensils and work your way in with each course.  What about placement of your utensils while eating?  There are two styles of dining Continental and American (Zig Zag).  Both of these styles involve different placement of the utensils while eating.  I will devote an article  on this another time as it is quite involved.  However one thing you should not do is put your knife on the table after using it.  I have seen many people do this.  Once a utensil has been used, there is a proper place for it.

Just another quick tip for your dining etiquette.  What do you do when the butter dish is passed?  Please don’t take your knife, cut the butter, or take a pat of butter with your knife and then proceed to spread the butter on your bread.  That’s why you  have a bread and butter plate.  Put the pat of butter on this plate first before spreading onto the bread.

These are just a few quick tips to keep in mind when dining.  Put these into practice, and you will feel more confidant in your dining experiences.

Ginny Brown

The  Etiquette School of Northeast Georgia

Hoschton, Ga (Hamilton Mill Area, Dacula)

ginny@etiquetteschoolofnega.com

678-889-4814