Proper Table Manners Will Impress Business Colleagues
Posted in Networking Tips
Proper table manners will increase your confidence and promote your ability to show your skills in handling social situations.
Napkin Etiquette
Place the napkin in your lap immediately after the last person has been seated at your table.
Make sure your dinner napkin is unfolded only in half. If the napkin is large put the fold toward your waist.
If you must leave the table during the meal be sure to put the napkin on your chair or to the left of your plate.
Place napkin to the left of the place setting when you have finished the meal and are leaving the table.
Passing the Food
Pass food to the right.
Serve food on the left and remove soiled platter from the right.
Serve beverages from the right.
Pass the salt and pepper together.
Ask the person close of you what you want "to please pass the item after they have used it themselves."
Eating rules
Don’t put your elbows on the table.
Begin eating only after everyone has been served.
Break hot or cold bread and eat one bite at a time.
Butter only one or two bites at a time. Butter should be taken from the butter dish and placed on the bread plate, not directly on the bread.
Holding your white wine glass by the stem and your red wine glass with fingers on both stem and bowl of glass is correct.
Bring food to your mouth, not your mouth to the food.
Always chew with your mouth closed and do not talk with your mouth full. Take small bites of food.
Do not leave a spoon in the cup, use the saucer or plate instead.
Cut food one piece at a time.
If food spills off your plate, you may pick it up with a piece of your silverware and place it on the edge of your plate.
When removing pits, bones, seeds and foreign matter from the mouth, remember that it comes out the same way that it went in. (If it went in with your fingers, as an olive on a relish tray, it comes out with your fingers. If it went in on your fork, as an olive as part of a salad, it comes out on your fork.) Except bones, which are always removed by the thumb and forefinger.
