Dining Etiquette Advantage

Like ordinary people, I hate Mondays. It is actually one of my longest days of the week this semester. I have a 4 hours research laboratory that sometimes get extended to 4.5 hours or even more. But today, was exceptional! =)

After my 4 hours lab, which my partner missed, and I ended up doing all the work alone, I attended this session at my school called Dining Etiquette Advantage. For $10, I enjoyed a 4-course meal and a lesson on manners for dining at a business interview level. So, what was on the menu? For $10, I would expect cheap things, probably food coming from the school's dining hall. But I guessed wrong! The food was exceptionally good! I didn't know that the chefs at our school can do that! LOL!

So, back to the question earlier. What was on the menu? For appetizers, we had a cream of tomato soup with sour cream and parsley, and a plate of greens with dressing ( I assume it was Italian). As for the main course, we had chicken with white creamy sauce, a scoop of mashed potato, and mixed vegetables (red peppers, cauliflowers, carrots, and zucchini). Guess what we had for dessert? CAPPUCCINO CHEESECAKE! =p That was unexpected!! I probably wouldn't complain if they served us chocolate cakes from Betty Crocker! =p The cheesecake had a thick layer of cappuccino mousse was very delightful. Topped with cocoa powder, whipped cream, a piece of chocolate, a strawberry and caramel sauce, it made an excellent dessert, one that would make me crave for more! In fact, my roommate is now nagging me to bake her a cheesecake! Not only her, but my church friends too! You guys gotta start paying me for these cheesecakes, because the materials are not cheap at all! Haha.. j/k guys!

Anyway, let's get back to dining etiquette. When you are at a lunch or dinner interview, be selective of what you order. It is important to follow your host's instructions of where to seat and what to order in terms of food, drinks, and price range. If your host does not order an appetizer, do not order an appetizer. Do not order the most expensive food on the menu unless your host recommends it for you. Do not order an alcoholic beverage unless your host insists for you to order one. Even so, do not order more than one. In terms of food, order something that you would be comfortable eating. Do not order food that is tricky to eat, such as chicken wings or seafood, and food that is messy, such as ribs. If your host does not order a dessert, then do not order a dessert. If you need to fulfill your sugar needs, go visit Dairy Queen after the meeting.

We were also taught on how to use multiple utensils. Always go from outside to inside. So, use utensils that are farthest away from your plate first. Glasses should be on your right side, and bread plate is on your left side. Do not take glasses or plates that do not belong to you. At a table, especially a round table, sometimes it can get confusing as to which plates or glasses belong to whom because there are just so many. If you need to get the salt and pepper or bread and butter, do not get up from your seat and reach for them. Ask someone that sits closest to the salt and pepper to pass it to you. Passing flow should always be to your left, although this is rule is often bypassed. Usually the host determines the passing flow. If he starts passing to the right, then everybody should follow and pass things to your right side. This is something that I've never heard before, but you should always pass the salt and pepper TOGETHER, even if the person only requested for one of them. When you are finished with your meal, always put the utensil down at four o'clock. That way, the server will know that you are finished and will take away your plate. Always leave the utensils on the plate; do not put utensils that have been in your mouth back on the tablecloth. If you are eating dessert and you still have multiple utensils on your left and right side, then people will know right away that you do not know the proper dining manners.

When eating, place the cloth napkin on your lap, and it should never leave your lap when you are still eating. If you have to excuse yourself to the bathroom, put your napkin on the table beside your plate, or place them on the back or the handle of your chair. Do not put it on the chair because you will use that cloth to wipe your mouth!

Another interesting fact that I never get to know about until tonight. When eating soup, you should scoop the soup using the spoon away from you, not towards you. The reason for this is that, if you scoop it towards you it makes it seem like you are starving and want to finish it as soon as possible. But if you scoop it away from you, you seem more relax and give the impression that you are not a barbarian! =p Even when you are trying to scoop the last bit of soup in your bowl, tilt the bowl away from you, not towards you. Interesting, huh? =)

Now let's talk about the drinks. Drinks are always placed on your right side. When drinking wine, order just as the way you like it. You do not have to follow the rule that you should drink white wine when you are eating chicken, and red wine when you are eating red meat. Just order the way you like it. When drinking red wine, always hold bottom part of the bowl of your flute glass. The reason for this is, the heat from your hand will help warm the wine and it will make the taste better. For white wine, you want to hold the stem of the flute glass because white wines are better when it is chilled. The same rule goes for water glasses, always hold the stem of your glass.

Lastly, always ALWAYS cut food into bite-size pieces before you pick them up with your utensils to put in your mouth. Do not be messy when eating! For dinner rolls, break the bread with your hands small enough for one bite, and add the butter on that small piece. So, do not cut the roll in half and apply butter to all sides, and then break into small pieces. Also, hold your utensils as delicate as possible with your hands. Do not hold a steak knife as if you are holding a butcher knife! =p

Other rules include basic table manners. Chew with your mouth closed, do not talk with food in your mouth, no elbows on the table, guys should sit straight up with both legs flat on the floor, girls may cross their legs if they want to, etc.

I think the session was very informative and I enjoyed it. The people at my table were also very funny. I think we had the loudest table in that whole room. We were actually laughing our stomachs out and tell each other funny and embarrassing stories! Other tables talk, but they make it seem so formal! LOL! Our table, even though we just met each other, we just talk and laugh, of course still following the rules of manners and stuff. We made fun of each other when someone accidentally drop food on the floor, or on the table. One of the girls at our table wanted to pick up a zucchini using her forks, but it accidentally slipped and flew out of her plate. Francoise (the only guy at our table) and I actually saw the incident and we just started bursting into laughters! LOL! It's just that, we were trying REALLY hard to use the skills that we were just taught. Everyone was eating so politely, using the utensils properly and hand gestures. We were eating slowly, and not rushing like we haven't eaten in days. Although everyone was actually starving because we started eating at around 7 PM, and everyone came to the session right after their classes and haven't had anything since lunch. One of us actually didn't have time to eat lunch and only ate an orange. So everyone was STARVING, but we still managed to practice the dining etiquette and our keep our manners. Although we were laughing like crazy simultaneously as something funny always come up. But even though we were so formal with eating, we kept our conversation casual. We talked around school and everyone's daily things.

One of the funny things is that, we only had one man at our table, so we made him our host. In general, the guys always eat faster than the girls. But we were taught to try to keep our eating pace with everybody else. So, he actually had to put down his utensils for a few minutes and pretended to talk while waiting for the girls to munch on their meals! =p

Anyway, that's it for tonight because I'm getting really tired. I had four parties over the weekend, not including church activities! So I'm pretty drained right now. And because I didn't study at all on the weekend, I have to try to catch up with things tomorrow! *sigh* I am not even done marking BI100 assignments and I have to hand it back to my students on Wednesday! >
For those of you that actually take time to read this, I hope that it has been an informative update for you. I apologize if things are not in order and kind of all over the place. It's pretty late and I just write things as I remember them!

See ya later, Alligator!