Everyone knows that knowing and following table manners is extremely important because ethical table behavior helps us feel confident and comfortable.
Inability to use a knife and fork should not deprive us of the pleasure of spending time in a fine restaurant. We present to your attention a number of basic rules of conduct in restaurants and in refined society in general.
In the restaurant: menu selection, ordering, tips
You can straighten your hair near the mirror in front of the restaurant entrance, but you cannot comb your hair or touch up your hair - this is done in the ladies' room. A man enters the hall first.
In the wardrobe, leave a coat, an umbrella, bags, a case with documents (if you are not having a business meeting), but not a handbag.
It’s acceptable to arrange a meeting on the street if you don’t like going into a restaurant alone. But according to the rules, the one who invites comes earlier and waits at the table.
The man orders the food and chooses the wine. True, he can consult with you and ask about your wishes. A man communicates with the service staff - head waiter, waiter and sommelier.
If you have invited a business partner to lunch, it is better to place and pay for the order in advance. They don't talk about business until the dishes and drinks have been chosen.
The one who invited pays the bill, even if it is a business lunch and the invitee is a man.
If a large group is dining, everyone pays for themselves, while the husband always pays for his wife.
Taboo. It is unacceptable to knock with a spoon when calling the waiter. You can’t ask for the bill when your partner is finishing her coffee – even if you’re in a hurry. It is not polite.
NB! In a restaurant, do not pull up a chair yourself - wait until your companion or head waiter does it. Stand calmly, without bending your legs or looking back.
If you are in a restaurant with a group and have invited a friend to join, introduce him to everyone present.
In restaurants, it is customary to leave a tip of 10% of the order value in addition to the amount indicated on the bill. In Ukraine (in all high-class restaurants) and Germany, the cost of service is included in the bill, and you can limit yourself to the amount indicated on it.
There is an unspoken rule: tips are left in banknotes. It is permissible to check the invoice for “errors”. And if you are unhappy with the service, you don’t have to leave a tip.
Code of Conduct
You need to sit at the table at a comfortable distance - not too close, but not too far - the distance should not exceed the width of your palm.
Under no circumstances should you place your elbows on the table; only your wrists can be placed on the table for a short time. However, women are allowed to lean their elbows slightly on the table if necessary.
When you use cutlery, your hands should not touch the table at all. While eating, if you have one hand free, do not keep it under the table - this is bad manners.
You should always sit upright on a chair, you can only bend slightly over the plate while eating. You need to sit at the table straight, but at the same time freely, so as not to create the impression that you are uncomfortable or uncomfortable.
A personal linen napkin should be placed on your lap. You should not wipe your lips and hands with it while eating. To do this, there should be paper napkins on the table.
After you have finished eating, you can lightly touch your lips with a linen napkin and wipe your fingertips.
If women wear lipstick, they should only use paper napkins.
Naturally, under no circumstances should you use any napkins at the table as a handkerchief. When you finish your meal, simply place your napkin on the table.
Even if you are very hungry, you need to eat slowly and quietly. Chew with your mouth closed and never chew or blow on food to cool it.
Don't talk while eating.
Don't insist on choosing dishes for your tablemates.
Even if the dish was very tasty, you should not wipe the bottom of the plate with a piece of bread.
At a large table, all common dishes should have their own utensils, for example, special forks, spoons or tweezers. With these utensils, not personal ones, you need to take and put food from common dishes on your plate. Under no circumstances use individual utensils to take food from a common dish.
If the desired dish or, say, a salt shaker is located at a great distance from you, do not reach across the table for it. Ask a neighbor or waiter to serve them to you.
If you need to temporarily interrupt your meal, then place the knife and fork on the plate the way you held them: the knife with the handle to the right, the fork with the handle to the left.
If you have completely finished your meal, arrange the cutlery as follows: the knife and fork lie next to each other, parallel to each other, and the handles of both items point to the right. This means that you have completed your dinner (lunch, breakfast, lunch), and the plate can be taken away.
If you're full, you don't have to finish the dish. This rule also applies to alcoholic beverages.
Table etiquette
Bread is eaten in pieces, which are broken off from a large piece taken. It is not customary to bite directly from this piece.
By the way, people take bread with their hands. Use the same method for cakes, cookies and fruits. Sugar cubes are also taken by hand or with special tongs if they are lying nearby.
In case you want to butter the bread, gradually break off small pieces, press them onto the plate with your fingers and spread with butter. By the way, butter and pate are taken with common utensils from common dishes and placed on your plate and only after that spread on bread. Caviar can be immediately spread on bread.
Buttered bread should not be cut with a knife.
If there is a small bread plate near you, then the bread must be transferred from the common plate to it. This is exactly what it is intended for. The butter is also placed with a clean knife on the edge on the same plate. They do the same with caviar, but for the caviar they use a small spatula instead of a knife.
Sandwiches served before the feast are eaten with hands, and at the table - with a fork and knife.
Sometimes a buffet sandwich is multi-layered and falls apart in your hands and does not fit in your mouth. This sandwich should be placed on a plate and used with a knife and fork (if utensils are not available, use paper napkins).
Meat
Pork and lamb chops, fillets, steaks, liver and other similar dishes are eaten using a table knife and fork: gradually cut off small pieces without cutting everything at once. In this case, the knife is in the right hand and the fork is in the left. When cutting a dish, the fork should not be held perpendicularly, but only at an angle to the plate.
Meatballs, cabbage rolls, omelettes, cutlets, and other soft dishes that do not require the use of a knife are eaten with a fork, which is held with the right hand, helping oneself with the knife. But it is not customary to cut food with a knife.
Remove the kebab from the skewer with a fork or the blunt side of a knife.
The sauce is poured over the meat, not the side dish.
Pierce the Kiev cutlet at the bone to allow the oil to flow out, and cut off one piece at a time. Attention: do not pick it up by the bone or hair curler!
The bird is eaten with a knife and fork. It is not necessary to completely cut off all the seeds. At home, you can allow yourself to take a chicken leg in your hand.
Meat with vegetables. There are conflicting recommendations on how to eat such a dish. According to the first, the meat should be cut into small pieces and the knife should be put aside. According to the second, you must not let go of the knife from your right hand or the fork from your left hand for a minute. Americans are guided by the first rule. In the European sense, this method is far from elegant. Following the second recommendation, it would be correct to cut off a piece of meat, holding it with a fork. Mashed potatoes are placed on a cut piece of meat, pricked on a fork.
If you serve meat with peas or other vegetables that are difficult to hold on a fork, then you can do this: hold the meat with a fork, cut off a piece, then turn the fork with this piece and put the vegetables in it; vegetables can be placed on the cut pieces of meat, as much as can be held.
When the meat is finished, holding the fork in your right hand, finish the peas (do not put the peas on the fork, but pick them up like on a spatula).
If the potatoes are served whole, they should not be squashed on the plate.
The salad, served with the meat on a separate plate, should be eaten from the same plate, taking a little in order with what is on the main plate.
Fish
Fish is eaten using a fish cutlery or with a fork and knife. If there are no special utensils, you can eat fish with two dinner forks.
If a spatula and a fork are served with the fish, then the spatula is held in the right hand and holds the pieces, and the fork is held in the left and the bones are separated.
If two forks are served with fish, one is used for eating and the other for removing bones.
If one fork is served with the fish, then take it in the right hand, and a piece of bread in the left.
If the fish is served whole (boiled or smoked), then first the upper part of the fillet is separated from the skeleton and eaten, then the spine and bones are separated. Put it aside and proceed to the second part. After this dish is eaten, a fish skeleton should remain on the plate.
If there is a fish bone left in your mouth, you need to discreetly place it on the fork with the tip of your tongue and put it on the edge of the plate.
Cold fish dishes are eaten using snack utensils.
Boiled and hot smoked stellate sturgeon, sturgeon and beluga are eaten only with a fork.
A slice of lemon served with cold fish is applied to the lips after the fish is eaten.
Oysters in restaurants are served already opened. First, squeeze the lemon into the shell, then take the oyster in your left hand and use a fork to scoop out the flesh. Eat it with a special device.
Crayfish are eaten with hands. At the same time, there should be bowls of moderate temperature water on the table in order to wash your hands after eating. This water usually contains chopped lemons; rose petals are less commonly used. Also, along with such vases, there must be clean napkins, cotton or paper, which must be removed immediately after finishing the meal.
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In a similar way, they also eat asparagus and “tabaka” chickens.
For lobsters/lobsters, a special set is used: tweezers, a special short fork and a spatula. The lobster shell is cut with tweezers, starting from the back. The claws are cut in the same way. The soft meat is removed with a special long fork with two prongs.
It is also common to eat shrimp with your hands.
Snack
If you decide to try a snack, put it on a plate and eat it with a fork and knife.
Cheese, poultry, ham, sausage and other natural meat dishes are not cut into small pieces immediately. It is necessary to cut such dishes using a knife and fork, gradually.
A snack, for example, if it is ham, cannot be placed on a piece of bread.
If the sausage is served unpeeled, then peel each piece on the plate with a knife and fork. Dry sausage is eaten with the skin on.
A soft-boiled egg is placed in a special glass, then the top is hit with the edge of a spoon. If the top doesn't come off, you can remove it with your fingers. Eating an egg requires a spoon.
Scrambled eggs can be eaten with a spoon or fork, depending on the consistency.
Sausages and sausages with thin skins can be eaten without removing them.
All types of cheese are served after meat dishes. Take cheese in portions.
Spaghetti or pasta sticks are very difficult to eat and look good. There are three ways:
The first method suggests using a fork and spoon. The spoon should be held in your left hand. Place the edge of the spoon into the plate and wrap the pasta around the fork in the recess of the spoon. Wrap a little pasta around a fork and cut off a portion with a spoon.
Second method: hold the fork like a knife ready for cutting. Dip a fork into the thick pasta and lift it up, releasing a small portion. Then put the fork with the pasta back into the plate, wrap it around the fork and quickly put it in your mouth.
The third method: prick the pasta on a fork, wrap a portion of pasta around it (the fork should be held vertically). The basic rule is to scoop no more than 2-3 strings of pasta onto a fork.
The salad is eaten with a fork. The knife is used to cut large pieces or lettuce leaves.
As much as possible, do not cut green salad with a knife. If it is served in such a way that the leaves are too large, then you need to cut them with a fork or carefully wrap the leaves around it and eat, trying not to leave any traces of sauce on your chin.
The pate can be taken with a knife, but, as a rule, the pate is eaten by separating small pieces with a fork. Spreading pate on bread can only be done in a family circle.
Take mustard and salt in small spoons. Mustard is placed on the bottom of the plate on the right side.
Soups, broths
It is not customary to finish soups without leaving any traces; according to the rules, a small amount of soup remains in the plate. However, at home, you can finish the soup by tilting the plate away from you.
Soups are eaten with a spoon, scooping from the body and bringing it to the mouth with a wide edge.
A spoon is used if you need to catch croutons, eggs, or pieces of meat floating in the soup.
A spoon is also used if the soup is served in a cup with two handles.
If the soup is very hot, do not blow on it to cool it down, and do not stir it with a spoon. It's better to wait for a while until it cools down.
There should be enough soup in the spoon so that it does not overflow from it.
The soup spoon is not placed on the table, but is left on the plate after eating.
The broth should be eaten with a dessert spoon, bringing it to the mouth with the sharp end, slightly obliquely.
Broths and soups served in cups should be drunk as you drink coffee or tea, without using a spoon.
When you eat the first course, do not sip, eat silently.
If there are dumplings, noodles or potatoes in the soup, crush them with the edge of a spoon.
Chicken in broth is both the first and second, so first eat the broth from the plate with a spoon, and then eat the chicken pieces with a fork and knife.
Fruits
The fruits served on the table are not checked for strength or selected.
Bananas are served unpeeled and eaten with your hands.
Oranges are peeled and divided into slices. They eat them with their hands. The bones are placed on a plate.
It is recommended to peel as follows: cut the peel crosswise, remove it and divide the orange into slices. Neither oranges nor tangerines should be peeled in a spiral manner.
The grapefruit is served cut crosswise, the middle is separated from the peel, but remains inside. It should be eaten with a spoon; you can sprinkle it with powdered sugar.
Watermelons and melons are usually cut into medium-sized slices, served with the peel and eaten with a fork and knife. Having taken a piece from a common plate, you need to put it on your plate, skin side down, and then cut off a thin slice with a fruit knife. and, having freed it from the seeds, put it into your mouth on a fork.
It is permissible to eat melon with a spoon.
The mango should be cut in half on its own plate. It is eaten with a spoon, after removing the bone.
The pineapple must be peeled, cut crosswise into thin slices and placed on a plate. Eating pineapple with a fork and knife.
Life is too short, so start with dessert
Barbra Streisand
Light and airy, tender and creamy, with a crispy crust and soft inside - and it’s all about them, about desserts. The most beautiful and perhaps the most difficult topic in the field of table etiquette
Desserts can be very easy to eat - for example, few people ask how to eat ice cream correctly. So incredibly complex! For example, what to do with mille feuille - so appetizing and richly decorated with berries and cream, but as soon as you start cutting it, it literally crumbles before your eyes. Or Napoleon cake - if you make the wrong actions with dessert utensils, crumbs from the puff pastry scatter not only on the plate, but also on the tablecloth.
Today we will talk about one of the most complex desserts, and, perhaps, the most “capricious” - the Pavlova dessert. Airy meringue, crispy and crumbly on top, soft and tender inside, light cream and fresh berries - there are many variations of this dessert. Each pastry chef brings something different to this masterpiece, but the main components remain the same. I studied all possible points of view regarding the correct use of this dessert, which could be offered by practicing experts in the field of etiquette and authoritative literary sources, not only Russian, but also foreign. I do not insist on this method as the only correct one. In my opinion, this is the most convenient, logical and meets the requirements of expediency and aesthetics.
Utensils that are ideal for this type of cake are a dessert fork and spoon. This pair of devices can be found most often in England - when serving their traditional “pudding”. This combination of instruments, at first glance, seems unusual and unusual. Basically, we are used to dessert knife and fork. However, for the Pavlova dessert, the knife-fork pair will be extremely inconvenient to use - the utensils will only crumble and break the very fragile texture of the dessert. And trying to prick a piece on a fork will only result in meringue crumbs scattering across the plate - I repeat, the texture of this dessert is too delicate and fragile. But the “fork-spoon” pair is ideal in this case. The fork is held in the left hand, the spoon in the right. The fork is used as an “auxiliary element”. We hold the dessert with a fork while we cut off a piece of dessert with the edge of a spoon.
A pair of utensils - a fork and a spoon - are suitable for complex desserts
Also, with the help of a fork, we push a cut piece, berries, and so on onto the spoon... We eat from a spoon, holding it in our right hand.
The spoon is held in the right hand
This way you can enjoy dessert as easily and aesthetically as possible. And with “the least losses” in the form of crumbs scattered across the table. The British taught me this method. In my opinion, the ideal solution for complex and capricious desserts.
I wish you Dolce vita!
With confidence in your success,
Maria Korikova,
etiquette training specialist
In this article we will tell you how to eat cakes and other desserts correctly. Knowing these rules will help you make the right impression on others.
So, according to tea etiquette, you need to follow a number of rules:
- If there are cakes or biscuits on the table as a dessert, then in order to put a piece on your plate, you need to use a special spatula or tongs.
- You need to eat a cake or sponge cake with a cake fork or a teaspoon. If the cake is baked from shortbread or puff pastry, then they are eaten with a fork and knife.
- If cookies, dry cakes or waffles are served at the table, they are taken directly from a common plate and eaten, breaking off a piece
- Rum women and cakes are eaten with a spoon from an individual plate, after cutting them into pieces.
- You can eat cakes with your hands, breaking off piece by piece.
- If the dessert is wrapped in a small paper napkin, then it is transferred to your plate in the same napkin, and this dessert is also eaten with a napkin.
How to eat fruit correctly
How to eat fruit correctly:
- When eating apples or pears, put them on a plate, cut them into slices, remove the middle, peel them and only then eat them (with your hands).
- To remove the pit from a plum, hold it over a plate and break it with your fingers. This must be done carefully so as not to splash the juice on the people around you.
- As for grapes, you need to put the grape brush on your plate and eat it, plucking the berries with your hands. The bones are then quietly spit out onto the spoon.
- The pit is cut out of the peach using a knife. You need to cut the peach deeply in a circle, then break it into two and halves and then cut out the pit. Next, the peach is peeled, cut into small slices and eaten with a fork. If an apricot is served to the table, then the pit is removed from it in the same way. But they eat it in half, that is, there is no need to cut it into small pieces.
- It is permissible to eat a banana with your hands. In this case, they first peel half, eat it, then peel and eat the rest. It is customary to leave the peel on the plate.
- Before serving, watermelons are cut into slices with a rind. Place the watermelon slice on your plate and remove the seeds with a knife. Eating watermelon using a knife and fork.
- To eat an orange, you need to put it on your plate, cut the peel into slices and peel it. Then the orange is divided into 6-8 slices, the seeds are removed and eaten.
- If we talk about tangerines, they are peeled and divided into slices directly with your hands. While eating, if any bones are found, they are quietly spat onto the spoon.
- If lemon is served at the table (usually it is served already cut into slices and sprinkled with sugar), then in order to add it to the tea, use a teaspoon.
- Grapefruit is usually cut across the grain. It is customary to separate the fruit pulp using a teaspoon.
- Berries (raspberries, strawberries and wild strawberries) are usually served in separate plates, individual for each guest. At the same time they are sprinkled with powdered sugar. Desserts with whipped cream are also often prepared with these berries. This dessert is eaten with a teaspoon.
How to eat candy and other sweets
- If candy is served on the table, that is, you can eat it, then, taking a candy from a vase or box, you can place it on your plate, then unwrap it and eat it.
- If you eat ice cream, you need to break off small pieces using a teaspoon. You should not break off too large a piece, since according to the rules of etiquette you cannot lick it from a spoon until it melts.
- If you were served honey or jam as a dessert, then you need to put it in your outlet. Then you can spread it on your bread with a knife.
- Bread can only be taken with your hands. They eat bread, breaking it into small pieces. If you want to spread butter on bread, then this is done on a plate; it is not customary to keep the bread hanging.
To the question: What is the correct way to eat a cake, with a fork or a spoon? given by the author Ask the best answer is The beautiful French word “dessert” usually refers to sweet dishes that complete a meal. The dishes and cutlery for them are smaller and more elegant than for the main appetizers, and they require special etiquette
Pastry chef of the CafeMan restaurant Elena Pushkareva talks about how to eat desserts correctly.
Cake
Cakes should be served on the table, previously cut into wedges - the only exception is the wedding masterpiece, which, according to tradition, is the first to be tasted by the newlyweds. Then you place the triangular piece on your plate and start eating it, moving from the pointed end to the wide part. You should use a dessert spoon or fork. True, this only applies to those treats that are made from soft biscuit. If the cake or pastry has fairly hard components - shortbread, puff pastry, waffles, meringue layer - they should be eaten with a dessert fork and knife.
Eclair
Donuts sprinkled with powdered sugar, bagels and pies with different fillings should be placed in an individual plate, taken in the right hand and bitten off little by little. Of course, no one will forbid you to use a dessert fork, but still, it is of no use for such treats. By the way, this rule also applies to small cakes with custard inside. Eclairs and profiteroles are fluffy creatures, so you need to eat them, even with your hands, but very carefully so that the cream does not accidentally drip onto your evening dress.
Jelly
Creamy desserts like tiramisu, panna cotta, jelly, jelly and compote, served in bowls or vases on a stand, should be eaten with a teaspoon or dessert spoon. And remember - for jelly and compote with berries or fruits, there are some tricks: you need to grab the cherry along with the liquid, quietly spit the pit into a spoon and transfer it to a plate. And under no circumstances drink a sweet drink from a bowl, as if from a cup. This is, of course, convenient, but contrary to the rules of etiquette. When all the compote has been eaten, place the spoon on a stand. Leaving it in a bowl is bad manners.
Ice cream
Eating ice cream correctly is a real art. First, you need to break off the ice dessert from the ball with a spoon, knead it a little so that it melts, and, taking it on the tip of the device, put it in your mouth - exactly as much as you can eat at once. There should not be a drop of product left on the spoon you take out of your mouth! If you grab a large piece of ice cream and then start licking and sucking it for a long time, prolonging the pleasure, in polite society they will not understand your behavior.
Cookie
With cookies and dry cakes, everything is quite simple - you take them with your hands and eat them. If the treat is large, you don’t need to bite it - it’s better to carefully break off a small piece and put it in your mouth. But there is no point in crumbling waffles - crunch them calmly and enjoy the process.
Baba
It turns out that according to etiquette, “rum baba”, a favorite Soviet treat with delicious sugar fudge and sweet raisins inside, should not be cut into pieces and tried to be eaten with a fork and knife. You can do it with your hands - carefully break off a small piece of dessert and put it in your mouth. If the “baba” is still cut, put the tasty triangle on a plate and arm yourself with a dessert spoon. Do the same with cupcakes and rolls.
Candies
Take your time to grab chocolates straight from the box or dish on which they lie peacefully. With the arrogance typical of aristocrats, choose the best sweet in your opinion, put it on the plate, and then begin to unwrap the wrapper. Do not bite or chew the treat, put it in your mouth immediately. Do not touch sticky candies with your hands - the waiter should serve small forks or skewers for them.
Source:
Answer from I-beam[newbie]
Spoon!
Answer from Mosol[active]
hands of course)
Answer from Natalia[guru]
With a fork.
Answer from Alexander Maksimov[guru]
Mouth
Answer from Admila Vostropyatova[newbie]
Like a dessert spoon.
Answer from Guest from the Future[guru]
Dessert spoon. Cake is a dessert.
Answer from Sagitta[guru]
If they serve a special fork for dessert, then use it. And so whatever it takes.
Answer from Anastasia[guru]
small dessert spoon
Answer from Eva Ivanovna[guru]
I eat with a fork, it’s easier to separate it,
but lately I’ve been trying to eat with my hands, it’s more enjoyable, because I limit myself in sweets)
Answer from Alexs[guru]
Cake spoon!
Answer from Anastasia[guru]
With your mouth!
I think with a teaspoon!
How often do we face the problem of behavior at the table? Perhaps, table etiquette one of the complex sciences that we never strive to understand until we find ourselves in an unusual situation.
Eclairs, donuts, bagels It is customary to take it in your right hand and carefully bite off a piece, but you can also use a dessert fork.
Rum babka and cupcakes They always eat with their hands, breaking off small pieces, but you can also use a teaspoon.
Jelly and cream desserts It is customary to eat with a dessert spoon or a special jelly spoon with a long handle. They are always served in bowls or vases. If this berry dessert, in which there are bones, then the bone should be carefully and preferably discreetly spit back into the spoon, and then put on a saucer or napkin. If there is juice or fruit compote left in the bowl, then under no circumstances should you finish it. In fact, the container in which you were served the compote should stand in one place and should not be tilted. This is against the rules of etiquette.
After you have eaten this dessert, do not leave the spoon in the bowl or bowl. The device should be placed on a stand plate or saucer. By the way, if you were served grapes, then it should be eaten directly with the seeds, and if you can’t do that, then you shouldn’t even covet this dessert.
And some tips on how how to eat ice cream.
When was it served to you cold dessert ball, you must first break off a small piece from it, then lightly knead it with a spoon so that it melts a little, and then scoop as much ice cream into the spoon as you can eat at one time. Don't leave the ice cream on the spoon to eat later. There should not be a drop of ice left on the spoon when it is taken out of your mouth. If you suck on the spoon and prolong the pleasure of devouring this dessert, you will be considered an uncultured and ill-mannered person.
If present on the table box of candies, then you shouldn’t start eating candy straight from the box. First, you should move the candy to your plate and unwind it if it is in a package. Then put the whole thing in your mouth, without biting, much less licking. By the way, if the candies are sticky, do not rush to grab them with your hands. You must be provided with special equipment. Most likely, these will be ordinary skewers.
