In today’s article, I’m going to be telling you about what is the least that you need to know about dining etiquette. Before I get started, let’s address two questions.

What Are Table Manners?

Number one, what are table manners for Dining Etiquette? Table manners are basically your behavior around the table. So how you hold cutleries, how you eat, and even what kind of conversation you hold, all makeup part of table manners for Dining Etiquette.

The second question that people often ask me about Dining Etiquette is, why do we even need table manners for Dining Etiquette, especially in today’s world where restaurants are casual dining places and we often have an informal dining experience.

The truth is, you need to have good table manners for your own goods. You’ll feel more comfortable at the table with Dining Etiquette, and you’ll put others at the table at ease with your good manners. So whatever the occasion, whatever the degree of Vermont at the dinner is, make sure you put your best foot forward.

Where Should You Sit?

Let’s talk about seating arrangements for Dining Etiquette. Where should you sit? If you’re a guest and you’re invited by a host or save your date, then you would wait for him or her to gesture with the seat and take your seat afterward.

If you’re the host, then you would do the same. You’d point the seat as intended for your guests, and he or she will take their seats. So the rule of thumb is that the guests always get the best seats. That means he or she will be facing the main area, the entrance, so he or she will get the best view. If you have multiple guests, then one guest will be our guest of honor, and you should save that best seat for him or her.

How Should You Sit?

Now that we have seated down, we need to remember a couple of rules for Dining Etiquette. Number one, don’t slouch. Don’t sit like this. Roll your shoulders backward, straighten your back and sit straight. Rule number two for Dining Etiquette, Don’t lean back against the back of the chair. Imagine you have a little kitten behind your back, so you are not pressing the little kitten. Leave some space between the back of the chair and your own back.

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Rule number three for Dining Etiquette is not to place your elbows at the table when eating. However, it is acceptable to place your elbows at the table whenever you’re taking a break between meals to have a conversation. Rule number four for Dining Etiquette, according to American dining etiquette, you’re supposed to leave your hands on your lap whenever they’re not holding cutlery.

Whatever Does Not Belong To The Dining Experience Should Be Held Away From The Table

In French dining etiquette, you’re supposed to always rest your wrist at the table so your hands remain visible to your dining partners at all times. This comes from an old, outdated notion that you might be holding some weapons in your hand and you are hiding it on your lap underneath the table.

The question that I get asked a lot is what should I do with my phone or my bag? The general rule is that whatever does not belong to the dining experience by itself should be held away from the table. That applies to your phone and your bag.

You should silence your phone before sitting down and putting it in your pocket or your bag. If it’s a large bag, you can place it on a special little chair designed for that bag or you can ask for a bag holder which looks like a hook and you can hang your bag from there.

Else you can also place your bag in an empty chair nearby or it’s nowadays acceptable to place a bag behind your back, but do it in a very rare case. If you have a small bag, it’s like a clutch. You can place it on your lap and cover it with a napkin.

Whatever you do, do not place your bag on ground level. In some cultures and some traditions, it seems to bring bad luck. And actually, it shows that you don’t respect the money that you’re holding in your bag. So keep it always above ground level for dining etiquette.

Where should You Start?

Let’s now look at our dining table. Where should I start? This is my dinner table setting. I have a napkin, a plate, a soup spoon, a salad fork, and a knife. Main course fork and knife, dessert fork, dessert spoon. The dessert should be much smaller than this, but this is what I’m going to serve and I’ll be using it. Next, I have the bread plate where I’m going to eat my bread. And I have a butter knife.

So the interesting part about this knife is that, unlike a traditional knife, this has a dull blade and it’s used to scoop the butter and spread it rather than cut it. Next, I have my glasses. So in order not to confuse which one is whose, I’m going to make the letters B and D with my fingers. So where B is pointing, that’s where my bread plate and butter knife is. And where D is pointing, that’s where the glasses are.

In order not to confuse it with that of your dining partners, use this trick. So now you see it down. You unfold a napkin. If you’re the host, you do it first indicated to a guest. You can do it in two ways. One with fold lines facing outwards, or the other way around, when you have the folded line facing inwards towards you.

I actually prefer this way. This is because I can basically tap my fingers and leave the stains inside. So from the outside, my napkin looks perfectly clean.

Once you place the napkin on your lap, you would use it to gently wipe your fingers and also dab your lips with it if necessary for dining etiquette.

What If You Are Leaving your Table For Any Reason?

If you are going to the bathroom and you will be back, you would place a napkin on the chair to indicate that you will be coming back. If you are leaving the table for good and you’re not coming back, then you place the napkin on the left side of the plate, and gently fold it.

No need to shape exactly, the original shape, and leave the table. If you happened to drop your napkin, you can pick it up if you’re okay with that. Or you can also indicate to the waiter that you want a new one to follow dining etiquette.

Glasses On Your Table

The glasses also often get confused about which glass is for what. There is no need to worry about it because the waiter or the seminar will usually fill your glass. But it’s good to know what is for what. Let’s look at this arrangement here. Generally, the taller glasses should be behind the shorter glasses or the glasses are often arranged in the order of their height, from the tallest to the shortest.

Looking at my arrangements, I can see that I have a glass of water, a glass of white wine, and a glass of champagne. So let’s start with the water goblet. It usually doesn’t have a stem-like you see in this case. And you would hold the water goblet by the bottom of the bowl like this. This is quite recognizable glass. It’s a champagne glass. It’s long and thin. The shape ensures that the bubbles and the champagne stay intact.

While you’re enjoying your drink, also make sure that you hold this glass by the stem so your fingers are not actually touching the ball and are not warming up the drink while you’re drinking it for dining etiquette. This is the white wine glass. Unlike the red wine glass, which is shorter and larger, this glass is longer and thinner.

The red wine glass is shorter and larger because red wines have much broader taste notes and they need more air to breathe. With the red wine glass, you would hold by the bottom of the bowl. So imagine the red wine glass. You will hold it like this. For the white wine glass, you have to hold it by the stem for dining etiquette so you don’t warm up your drink while you’re drinking it.

Before You Start Your Meal

So let’s get started with our meal. Before you start watching, your host recommends if he or she starts to eat, then it’s time to enjoy your meal. When there are a lot of people in a place, you wait for everyone to be served before you start eating. This is called “service with dignity” for dining etiquette. And then you’ll start to eat. So the bread plate is used to enjoy the piece of bread. And I use the butter knife to pick the butter and spread it on the bread piece.

And then I’m going to enjoy one bite at a time. The first meal that I’m going to be enjoying is soup. I’m going to use the soup spoon, dip it in the center of the bowl, take it to the opposite edge of the bowl, slide it gently, and then bring the spoon to my mouth in order to make sure that I don’t get any spills on my lap. For my second course, I’m going to have a salad. I’m going to use a salad knife for a salad.

Ways Of Eating

I will show you two ways of eating for dining etiquette. One way of eating with dining etiquette is American, which I’m going to currently show you. It’s important to eat a small piece of food at a time when you’re eating cheese and tomato. Then you would place your knife, and then you switch your work to the other hand and eat it like that.

The other way to eat with dining etiquette is the European or continental way of dining, where I would just use the fork and knife and in the same way and use it to cut my tomato and mozzarella. And then what’s going to happen? I’m going to leave the knife in my hand and eat it like that.

Here I have my main course, which is chicken breast with parmesan. I’m going to use the main course fork and the main course knife to cut the chicken breast one piece at a time.

When you’re done with the meal, you place your fork and knife in a position from twelve to 06:00, with time facing upward or downward, as the French dining etiquette does usually. Or you can also place it in a position of ten to 04:00 just like this, and with a four-time facing down or facing up, it’s up to you.

After Finishing Your Meal

Once you’ve finished your main course, it’s now time to enjoy dessert. This is the perfect time to excuse yourself from the table and use the bathroom if you wish.

So here I have a dessert fork and a dessert spoon. I will slide them to both sides, respective sides. I’m going to be using a fork as a holder and a spoon to cut like a knife. So I’m going to hold the dessert with a fork and cut it with a spoon. Then I’m going to use the fork to push any remaining particles that I want onto my spoon and use a spoon to eat my dessert.

Once you’re done eating your dinner, it’s time to indicate to the waiter that you’re expecting the deal. You can do so by having eye contact with a waiter or by raising your hand at your elbow. Once you have paid the bill, it’s time to leave. You should take your napkin, fold it non smoothly, place it on the left side of your face and leave.

If you’re the host, you do so by indicating to your guests that it’s time to leave. If you’re a guest, you watch the host do so, and you leave. On a final note, if this was a dinner you were invited to, make sure you send a thank you message to the host the next day. If you really, truly love the dinner experience, you might also consider sending flowers with a beautiful handwritten thank you note.