In the trend of globalization, it is necessary for a businessman to know about rules of international communication. The below instructions are basic eating and drinking rules of European and American manners.
1. How to drink
a. Use glasses from the left one to the right one. Sip water after each dish. A water glass will be placed on the top left. The next ones are a champagne one for appetizer, a red wine one for red meat such as beef, lamb…, and a white one for white meat such as chicken, fish...
b. Hold your wine glass by the stem, not the rim as you may warm up the wine.
c. When clinking glasses, make eye contact with the other person. You also should clink glasses individually with each person at the table without crossing anyone's arms.
d. While taking a sip, you should politely look into your glass. (And not at another person, if you're in the middle of a conversation.)
e. Drinks for appetizers: whiskey and soda, gin and tonic, red wine, white wine, wine for women such as Martini, Cinzano, and Dobonnet.
f. Drinks for main courses: champagne for cheering, chilled white wine, red wine at room temperature.
g. Drinks after main courses: tea, coffee, liquors such as Co-gnac, Cointreau, Porto, and Anis... These liquors will be served by specialized glasses.
2. How to use utensils
a. Hold your knife in your right hand and your fork in your left hand.
b. The following pictures describe how to cut meat properly:
c. Starting with the knife, fork, or spoon that is farthest from your plate, work your way in, using one utensil for each course. The salad fork is on your outermost left, followed by your dinner fork. Your soup spoon is on your outermost right, followed by your beverage spoon, salad knife and dinner knife. Your dessert spoon and fork are above your plate or brought out with dessert.
d. For American and European table, one utensil is for one course. Therefore, you can guess the number of courses by calculating how many utensils there are on the table.
e. Spoon and fork do not go together (except for desserts). You can hold a fork on your left hand and a knife on your right hand at the same time. Sometimes a fork and a knife do not go together.
f. Place a fork on the left side of a plate, knife and spoon on the right one.
g. A fork for a main meat course is the largest one, the one for a fish course is the second largest one, and the small ones are for appetizers, salad.
h. A knife for a meat course is serrated and large, the one for a fish course is also large but not serrated, the one for salad, seafood… is smaller.
i. How to use a spoon and a fork for a dessert
j. How to use knife and fork:
American style: The fork is held in the left hand, tines down; the knife in the right hand. You use the fork to hold the food while cutting a bite-size piece with the knife. After It is never appropriate to cut more than one bite-size piece at a time. Then you eat food by switching the fork to the right hand and finally inserting the piece of food in your mouth. After a few bite-sized pieces of food are cut, you lay the knife on the edge of the plate with blades facing in. The entire process is repeated as your need to cut food continues.
When not cutting, the knife remains resting across the upper right quarter of the plate with the blade toward the center while eating proceeds using the fork alone.
European/Continental style: In the Continental style, as in the American style, the fork is held in the left hand, tines down; the knife in the right hand as shown in this picture.
k. While eating, you would like to have a rest for talking, drinking, or leaving the table:
American style: When you are resting, your knife stays at the one o'clock position with blade turned inward and your fork at the four o'clock position with tines up..
European style: When resting between bites, the knife and fork are crossed on the plate with the fork over the knife with the prongs pointed down in an inverted V. The well-informed wait staff will never remove your plate with the knife and fork crossed because they know that you are not finished with your meal.
l. When you are finished:
American style: To indicate that you have finished eating, the utensils are placed together on the plate with the fork tines up and the knife turned inward in the lower, right-hand portion of the plate between the clock positions of four and six. This assures that they will not slide off as the plate is being removed.
Continental/European style: When you have completed your main course, the utensils are placed together on the plate with the fork tines down and the knife turned inward anywhere between the clock positions of four and six. This position of your silverware indicates that you have finished eating.
As you can see by the illustrations above, the "I'm finished" position in both the Continental and the American style are similar. The difference is that in the Continental style, the fork is placed with tines down and in the American style, the fork is placed with tines up. Both send a clear signal to the wait staff that they can remove your plate and silverware.
m. Placing Utensils After Start Eating is considered as inappropriate:
3. How to use a napkin
a. A napkin is used for one thing only – dabbing the mouth. Never wipe your mouth with a napkin, you should always dab.
b. If, for some urgent reason, you must leave the table before you have finished, you should place your napkin on your seat.
c. When you get down from the table after finishing, leave the napkin, unfolded on the table, to the left of the place setting.
d. Dab your mouth before drinking. It avoids from stick It avoids sticking food on the glass.
e. When dabbing your mouth, do not cover your face.
f. Do not use a napkin to wipe smears on clothes or cravat.
4. Things you should and should not do
a. Do not put your elbow on a table, do not cross your legs, do not lean back on your chair, and do not shake your feet.
b. Do not scrape or clatter it noisily against your plate or bowl.
c. Do not pick up any cutlery that you drop to the floor. It will be replaced by the server.
d. Try to avoid making noises of any kind while eating, either with implements against the plate or teeth, or with actual ingestion of the food, e.g. slurping soup.
e. Salt and pepper should be passed together, even if someone asks only for one.
f. Never intercept a pass when food is passing to the next person (usually in the counter-clockwise). You should ask them to pass the food right back.
g. Chew with your mouth closed.
h. Never lick your fingers or any utensil (and plate).
i. Do not "play with" your food or utensils. Never wave or point silverware. Do not hold food on the fork or spoon while talking, nor wave your silverware in the air or point with it.
j. Do not blow your nose at the dinner table. Do not use a toothpick or apply makeup at the table.
k. Say "Excuse me," or "I'll be right back," before leaving the table. Do not say that you are going to the restroom.
l. Do not reach over someone's plate for something; ask for the item to be passed.
m. Always chew and swallow all the food in your mouth before taking more or taking a drink.
n. Always say thank you (not “thank you very much”) when served something. It shows appreciation.
o. Do not move your plate after your meal has been served.
p. Do not blow on hot food to cool it down. Wait for it to cool itself.
q. Do not move your dishes after you are finished.
r. Do not make a fuss. If you don’t like something, leave it.
s. Talking while there is food in your mouth should be avoided at all costs. Do not talk with your mouth full.
