Transcript Slide 1

Professional Etiquette
Mastering Table Manners
Coming to the
Table
• At business meals, the host or lead business person should set
clients first - and their business associates second.
• In formal business occasions, the seating is predetermined by
place cards. In such a situation, no one sits down until the
host or guest of honor is seated.
• Never switch place cards at a business function. A great deal
of thought has gone into the seating plan.
• Before sitting down, make sure you know everyone at the
table. If you don’t, make last-minute introductions.
Ordering
• Avoid selecting the most expensive item on the menu if a client or
your employer will be paying for the meal. It’s best to order from
the mid-priced offerings' on the menu.
• If you dine in restaurants that specialize in international cuisine and
you don’t speak the language, take the time to learn four or five
food items ahead of time.
• It is also acceptable to request assistance from the waiter.
Should you order a drink (cocktail or wine) before dinner?
• When you are the host, it is best to follow the lead of your
guest.
• You can offer a drink, but if your guest doesn’t order one,
abstain as well.
• If you are a non-drinking host, suggest to your guests that
they have a drink if they would like to.
Napkin Etiquette
• Once seated, wait for your host to take up his or her napkin
and place it on his or her lap. Then place your own napkin in
your lap. Unlike a social situation, where guests wait for the
hostess to touch their napkin, in a business situation hierarchy
replaces gender.
• It is not necessary to fully open a large napkin, and you should
avoid flourishing it like a bullfighter. Fold of napkin faces you.
• The purpose of your napkin is to dab the corners of your
mouth, not to wipe off lipstick or blow your nose.
• If you leave the table during the meal, place your napkin on
your chair.
• When you have finished your entire meal and are leaving the
table, place your napkin to the left of your place.
• Do not ball up your napkin; rather fold it neatly.
When to Start
Eating
• Do not start to eat until your host begins to eat.
• Don’t even take a sip of water until your host does.
• If you are at a banquet or other group situation, wait until all
those around you have been served the first course an begin
to eat together…wait until everyone has food.
• Sometimes, the host will encourage you to go ahead and not
wait. In this case, begin eating if you choose to do so.
Manners During the Meal
• Sit up at the table throughout the entire meal.
• Do not support yourself by your elbows or forearms. You may rest
your wrist on the edge of the table, but lightly.
• Your left hand should always be lap unless needed to use knife.
• Do not rest your head in your hands between courses.
• Fidgeting at the table is unacceptable. Don’t plink on he table with
your cutlery, fidget with the tablecloth, your napkin, appetizer
picks, your hair, your fingernails or anything else close at hand.
• Do not wave your utensils around while you are talking.
• Never saw your meat; simply request a steak or meat knife.
• Never cut your meat into bites all at one time.
• Do not place your utensils by their tips on the edge of the plate.
• Food is always passed counter-clockwise.
Dinner Conversation
• As soon as you are seated, informal conversation is in order.
• You may talk about the town if you or your guest are in. If some of
the participants traveled a distance, inquire about their trip.
• Listen carefully to responses and indicate your interest by asking
pertinent follow-up questions.
• Avoid discussing your personal life, sex, politics, religion – you want
cordial conversation – not controversy.
• It takes time for productive discussion to develop. One purpose of
chit-chat during the meal is to warm up.
• If you’ve had a lively conversation during the meal, everyone is
primed to talk about the business plan over coffee.
• Avoid putting large amounts of food or large chunks of food in your
mouth.
• Keep complains to yourself.
Table
Setting
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Napkin
Salad fork
Dinner fork
Dessert fork
Bread-and-butter plate with
spreader (butter knife)
6. Dinner plate
7. Dinner knife
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
Teaspoon
Teaspoon
Soup spoon
Cocktail fork
Water glass
Red-wine glass
White-wine glass
Coffee cup and saucer
• A soup bowl or salad bowl may also be placed in the center of the plate.
• You may also have a charger plate underneath the dinner plate.
Dining Styles
• There are two ways to use a knife and fork to cut and eat your food:
American style and the European or Continental style.
• In the American style, one cuts the food by holding the knife in the right
hand and the fork in the left hand with the fork tines piercing the food to
secure it on the plate.
– Cut a few bite-size pieces of food, then lay your knife across the top
edge of your plate with the sharp edge of the blade facing in.
– Change your fork from your left to your right hand to eat, fork tines
facing up. (If you are left-handed, keep your fork in your left hand,
tines facing up.)
• The European or Continental style is the same as the American style in
that you cut your meat by holding your knife in your right hand while
securing your food with your fork in your left hand. The difference is your
fork remains in your left hand, tines facing down, and the knife in your
right hand.
Cutlery Placement
When You Have Finished …
• Do not push your plate away from you when you have finished
eating. Leave your plate where it is in the place setting.
• The common way to show that you have finished your meal is to
lay your fork and knife diagonally across your plate.
• Place your knife and fork side by side, with the sharp side of
the knife blade facing inward and the fork, tines down, to the
left of the knife.
• The knife and fork should be placed as if they are pointing to
the numbers 10 and 4 on a clock face.
• Make sure they are placed in such a way that they do not slide
off the plate as it is being removed.
• Once you have used a piece of silverware, never place it back on
the table.
• Do not leave a used spoon in a cup, either; place it on the saucer.
You can leave a soupspoon in a soup plate.
• Any unused silverware is simply left on the table.
Eating the Meal - Bread
• If a basket of bread is sitting in front of you, you should begin by
passing – but not taking – the bread.
• Pass the bread to your right.
• When bread is served half-sliced in a basket with a napkin, take the
portion of the napkin in your left hand and hold a section of the
bread, without touching the bread, while you tear off one piece
with your right hand.
• The napkin is in the basket to cover or protect the remaining bread.
• Place butter from the serving dish on you bread-and-butter plate,
not directly on the bread. Never use the knife with the butter dish
to butter your bread.
• Do not butter the entire slice. Break off a piece of bread and then
butter the piece held over the plate. Rest knife on bread plate.
• Never dip, dunk, or wipe up sauces with your bread unless designed
to do so.
• If you are dipping into communal olive oil, never, ever double dip.
Eating the Meal - Soup
• Clear soup is served with a small, rounded soupspoon; cream soup
with a medium, more oval soupspoon.
• Occasionally, you may be served consommé, served in a small bowl
with handles on each side. Pick up the delicate bowl by the handles
and sip.
• All other soups should be handled like this:
– Hold your spoon the way you would a pencil.
– Spoon the soup away from you toward center.
– Sip from the side and not the point of the spoon.
• You may rest the spoon in thee soup bowl while you pause.
• After you finish, place the spoon on the saucer beneath the cup or
bowl. Don’t leave the spoon in the bowl or cup.
• Blowing on your soup to cool it is not polite. You may gently stir it
or spoon from the edge of the bowl first.
Eating the Meal - Salads
• Most restaurants serve lettuce cut up in bite-size pieces. If
not, use your knife to cut up the lettuce one bite at a time. Do
not cut up the entire salad at once.
• If you do use your knife with your salad, you may request a
clean knife when your dinner arrives.
• After finishing a salad, don’t push your plate or bowl away.
The way you place your cutlery (4 o’clock position) informs
the wait staff you’ve finished. They will come by and pick it up
for you.
• If something is in your salad that you don’t like, just push it to
the side of your bowl or plate. Do not take it out of the bowl
or plate and put it on a napkin.
Managing Dining Mishaps
• If you drop your utensil on the floor, never lean over and pick it up.
Ask a waiter for another one. Use foot to move it out of the way.
• If you are served a piece of food that Is not cooked properly, call a
waiter and quietly explain the situation in a whisper. They will most
likely reappear with a different plate of food.
• If you dislike the food being served, the polite thing to do is to take
a little of everything.
• If you are allergic to food being served, just smile and say no thank
you. It’s not necessary to say anything critical.
• If you have a bone, gristle, etc., discreetly place the item onto the
tines of your fork and lay it on your plate, hiding it under something
if possible.
• If you notice that someone has food stuck in their teeth or in his
beard, catch their attention and discreetly motion to that part of
your face where the offending morsel is lodged.
Additional Tips
• Thoughtfully taste your food before you add any
seasoning. The chef has tried to achieve perfect
seasoning, and when you immediately reach for the
salt and pepper, you indicate that perfection was no quite achieved.
• Pass the salt and pepper as a pair, so that they stay together
throughout the meal.
• Don’t announce that you have to go to the bathroom or need to
make a phone call. Politely excuse yourself from the table.
•
Turn off your pager and cell phone, unless you have a valid
reason for leaving it on. If you do, tell your guest of that
possibility in advance.
• After you remove your napkin from the ring, you should place the
napkin on your lap and the ring to the left of your plate.
Additional Tips
• During a business meal, your mind is on business.
Don’t overburden yourself by ordering foods that
challenge your table manners and your wardrobe.
• Keep purses, briefcases, cell phones, keys, etc. off the table.
• Don‘t crunch on ice.
• Do not talk with food in your mouth or chew with your
mouth open.
• Pace yourself when eating.
• Be courteous to servers, but not overly talkative.
• A server serves from your left – removes from your right.
• Never intercept a pass. Snagging a roll out of the
breadbasket or taking a shake of salt when it is en route
to someone else is a no-no.
Additional Tips
• Do not use a toothpick or apply makeup at the table.
• Whenever a woman leaves the table or returns to sit,
all men seated with her should stand up.
• Do not push your dishes away from you or
stack them for the waiter when you are
finished. Leave plates and glasses where
they are.
• If someone sitting to your immediate left requests a second
helping of potatoes, don't send the dish all the way around
the table. It's perfectly fine to directly pass the dish to the left.
• Always say please when asking for something. Be sure to say
thank you to your server and bus boy after they have
removed any used items.
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