How to use the menu?

A menu is a list of dishes that can be prepared in a restaurant or cafe. If the name of the dish doesn't mean anything to you, ask the waiter for an explanation.

When ordering dishes, it is advisable not to get carried away with their quantity; it is better to stick to two cold appetizers and one hot appetizer (meat or fish). Dessert and drinks are usually ordered during the meal.

Usually the menu is compiled in the order in which all dishes are served, excluding drinks.

How to choose drinks?

According to experts, it takes almost a lifetime to become a wine connoisseur. But if you are invited to a gala reception, it would be nice to gain at least a small amount of knowledge in this area (you can consult with specialists or use the Internet). There are generally accepted rules: chilled white wine is served with fish, red wine at room temperature with meat and cheese, but vodka, champagne and cognac (in our country) accompany the meal from appetizers to its completion.

Before the start of the meal, an aperitif is usually served - a weak alcoholic drink that stimulates the appetite.

There is a rule: the stronger the drink, the smaller the capacity of the glass into which it is poured. Glasses are usually filled 2/3 full. Only cognac is poured into a special tulip-shaped glass, filling it 1/3 full.

All alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, except sparkling drinks, are poured into dishes placed on the table.

Glasses are always held by the expanding upper part, and if drinking white or red wine, by the “waist” so that the drink in the glass does not change its temperature.

How to use the devices?

Before you start eating, carefully and calmly unfold your napkin (it is often on the plate) and, folding it in half straight or diagonally, cover your knees with it. Don't let the cutlery's shine and quantity scare you - they are placed in the order in which the dishes are served: soup, fish, meat, dessert (towards the food). If a first course is not provided, there is no spoon. Often a dessert spoon and fork, as well as a bread knife, are placed on top in front of the plate. If you do not order fish, the waiter will remove unnecessary cutlery

How do they eat eggs?

If you are served an omelette, you can only use a fork; if you have fried eggs, use a knife and fork, since only a knife can handle the crispy, dense crust.

If hard-boiled quail eggs are served (usually 4-5 on a platter or in a basket), eat them one at a time, after breaking the shell on the edge of your plate and peeling it. You can dip the egg in salt on the edge of the plate. They eat with their hands.

Soft-boiled eggs are served in special stands. Using a teaspoon, carefully break the upper narrow part of the egg, peel a small area of ​​the shell and eat with the same teaspoon.

How to eat an orange?

First, pierce it with a fork (hold in your left hand), divide it into four parts and remove the peel with a knife. Then divide into slices, remove the grains and eat one slice at a time. On less solemn occasions, holding the fruit with the hand, cut it into large rings with a knife, cut in the middle, open it and eat it, holding the peel with your hands.

How do you eat apples and pears?

On official events use a knife and fork. Pierce the fruit with a fork, cut it into quarters, remove the core and remove the skin. Then cut into small pieces.

On less formal occasions, these fruits are usually eaten without utensils, only by cutting and removing the core.

How do you eat first courses?

If the first dish is served in a plate, then it is usually not customary to lift the edge of the plate with the last drops. But if it is a bowl or bowl with two handles, you can, when finishing the rest, remove the spoon and drink straight from the cup (without sound, of course).

It is better to use a tablespoon on your own. If you use a spoon with a wide, blunt nose, then bring it to your mouth with the side, if with a narrow one, from the narrow end. And the most important thing when using any cutlery is to fill it with as much food as you can fit into your mouth at one time.

How to eat meat dishes correctly?

Meat dishes are very varied. Each country has its own unique recipes for their preparation. The meat is boiled, fried, eaten raw (Tatar steak, for example), stewed, pickled, smoked. And all this is eaten quite simply - sometimes with your hands, more often with a fork and knife (in China, Japan, Korea - with chopsticks), less often - with a tablespoon (for example, Hungarian goulash). When eating meat dishes, be it pork, beef, game, or poultry, etiquette provides practically one basic rule: you should always try to use utensils to the maximum and only eat with your hands if it is extremely inconvenient. The logic here is simple: eating with your hands is not entirely hygienic, and not aesthetically pleasing, and, in addition, your hands get dirty and need to be washed in specially provided dishes.

Some liberties in table etiquette are allowed, mainly at picnics, barbecues, and sometimes at receptions such as buffets and buffets. There, picking up something with your hands, such as kebabs, is considered natural. In restaurants and at receptions with seating at a table, meat food is eaten mainly using the above-mentioned devices, and they are laid out by waiters strictly in the order in which the dishes are served, so it is almost impossible to make a mistake. For steaks, cutlets, chops - another fork on the left, another knife on the right. For stews and goulash - special spoons.

It is generally accepted that a fork is held in the left hand and a knife in the right. The meat is usually cut off one small piece at a time. North Americans, however, have their own tradition. They first take the utensils as expected, cut off a few pieces of meat, then transfer the fork to their right hand and eat what they have cut, and then repeat the procedure. Strange, but acceptable.

It is customary to hold instruments like holding a pen or pencil. It is not necessary to put down utensils while food is being chewed.

How do you eat fish dishes?

Typically using a fork and knife. There are even special fish knives with curved handles, but if they are not served, you can use regular ones. The fish must be handled with care, as it usually contains a lot of bones. All bones and bones must be separated using a knife and fork; it is better to put them in a separate plate, if served, or on the edge of your own. If the skin of the fish is not particularly edible or there are scales left on it, then they also come off. Everything else can be eaten, not forgetting, however, that small bones may remain. If any are found, they can be pushed out with your tongue onto a fork or removed gracefully with your fingers and placed on a plate. With fish fillet, everything is simple: it is eaten in the same way as a piece of meat.

Small fish such as sprat are eaten whole. If it is fried small fish, then you can separate the bones and head.

How do they eat seafood?

For lobster special equipment is required: tongs, various forks, a large sheet of paper or a plastic bib, a container for chopped and crumbled shells. You should eat it like this: hold the lobster tightly with one hand, and take tongs in the other. Now you can separate the claws. You need to split the claws very carefully so as not to splash your neighbors with juice. Then, using a special fork, the meat is removed and eaten. The meat from the tail is separated alternately from each side. If the entire strip is removed, it should be divided into pieces using a knife and fork. Lobster liver and roe are considered delicacies and are eaten with a fork. The remains of the shell are placed in a garbage container. For hands they can serve a bowl of hot water and a slice of lemon and, of course, a napkin.

Raw oysters, and shellfish And mussels served on ice on open shells. The shell should be held with the thumb and forefinger on the plate, and the meat should be eaten with a special fork or spoon. If it is difficult to get the meat out, you can use a regular fork. The sauce for oysters is added directly to the shell, or you can simply dip the meat into the sauce. They try to take out the contents of the shell and eat it in one go. You can drink delicious juice straight from the sink. Place oyster crackers in the sauce, several at a time, and eat them with a fork.

To break the shell crab, you will need forceps, do the rest with your fingers. The meat is taken out and eaten with a special small fork. The process of cutting crabs in itself is exciting, but you risk getting dirty, so have napkins and water ready for your hands. At official receptions for VIP guests, crab meat is removed from the shell in advance.

What are the features of eating sushi?

Sushi is a Japanese dish made from pieces of raw fish and rice seasoned with vinegar. A piece of fish is taken with your fingers and dipped in soy sauce and eaten immediately. It is customary to eat the whole thing, but if the piece is too large, bite off part of it, dip the rest in the sauce again and finish it. If sushi is served wrapped in seaweed, then you will have to use chopsticks, like the Japanese, and only as a last resort, in the European way, with a fork.

Is it possible to eat with a fork and knife in a Japanese or Chinese restaurant if you don’t know how to use chopsticks?

Can. Moreover, in a decent restaurant the waiter should always ask what cutlery to serve.

How do you eat pasta, potatoes, stewed vegetables and other side dishes?

Pasta comes in different shapes, which is why they are eaten in several ways.

If you're serving Italian-style pasta (long, thin noodles sometimes called spaghetti), you'll mostly need a fork. The tines of a fork are dipped into the pasta and twisted in your hand until a sufficient amount has been wrapped. If the spaghetti hangs too much, you can try to bite off the excess and quietly suck something into your mouth. You can roll the spaghetti by helping yourself with a spoon, that is, twisting the noodles with a fork along the bottom of the spoon.

If wrapping is difficult for you, you can cut the pasta into small pieces and eat it in the usual way using a fork and knife. We do the same when the pasta is small, that is, in the form of rings, curls, feathers, etc.

As a side dish, potatoes are served fried, boiled, or baked.

French fries in fast foods can be eaten with your hands, but in a real restaurant it is better to use a fork. We do the same with potatoes fried in Russian in a frying pan.

Baked and boiled potatoes are cut into pieces if peeled and eaten with a fork. Jacket potatoes are cut in half, the middle is placed on a plate and eaten with a fork, salt and sauces are added to taste. Potato skins are considered healthy, so they can also be eaten, which is what they do in many countries.

Stewed vegetables, and there are a great variety of them (as well as methods for preparing them), are eaten mainly with a fork, sometimes with a knife if the vegetables are large. You can eat some things with your hands, for example asparagus, but it is better to use utensils, including a special spoon, if vegetable or other side dishes are served in the form of liquid puree or porridge.

How do you eat salads?

The salad is eaten from a regular plate with a fork for the main course, especially if everything is served at the same time.

If the salad is served separately, it is customary to eat it with a salad fork. The restaurant may even offer a special salad knife. It, like a salad fork, is smaller than conventional cutlery. If the vegetables in the salad are large, then cut them using a fork and knife. Usually cut off one piece at a time.

Cherry tomatoes are eaten like this: larger ones are cut, smaller ones are eaten whole.

If the cherries or olives are hard, small and not covered with sauce or oil, then it is better to take them with your hands and eat them with ease, than to drive them around the plate with the risk of driving them into someone’s lap. The main thing is to do everything naturally.

Where is the bread plate?

Plates for bread and butter are always placed to the left of your main plate, and glasses for drinks are to the right.

How to eat bread?

Break off the bread from your plate into small pieces. You should not pick out the crumb or bite the crust.

If there is a common butter dish on the table, take a little butter from the total mass onto your plate, and then spread it on a broken piece of bread. Keep it all over the bread plate, not the main plate.

Never butter the entire piece at once—it's not a sandwich.

Is it customary to eat decorations (greens, tomatoes, etc.) on served dishes?

You can eat everything that is edible and intended for food. If you feel sorry for “cutting up the beauty”, or if you don’t like the taste of the greens or vegetables that serve as decoration (hard curly parsley, raw carrots and beets), then feel free to leave everything on the plate.

Is it possible to use a toothpick at the table?

All hygiene procedures (taking pills, combing hair, applying eye drops, and tidying up your teeth) should be performed only in the toilet room. It’s rare that someone can gracefully cover their mouth with a napkin and clean up their teeth with a toothpick. The same can be said about using dental floss.

What if you finish your meal before others?

When you've finished your meal and placed your cutlery diagonally on your plate, an experienced waiter will understand. Not many people know that the waiter should not clear the table until everyone has finished eating. If you finished your meal early, sit quietly and continue the conversation. Never stack plates on top of each other, much less move them away from you - this is against the rules. In the remaining time you can drink tea, coffee, juice. Avoid actions that will urge your companions. But if you're the slowest eater at a business lunch, it's better not to finish your meal than to make everyone wait.

Good luck and bon appetit!

A.V. Rogova, senior lecturer at VGIK named after. S.A. Gerasimova, B.A. Shardakov, senior adviser to the Russian Foreign Ministry

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 offer you a number of basic rules behavior in restaurants and in refined society in general.

In the restaurant: menu selection, ordering, tips

You can straighten your hair near the mirror before entering the restaurant hall, 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 dishes 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 cannot demand the bill when your partner is finishing her coffee - even if you are 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 the restaurant, 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 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

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.

Bread spread with butter 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 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 piece by piece. 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 into the left hand and use a fork to scoop out the pulp. 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 type of water usually contains chopped lemons; it is less commonly used pink petals. Also, along with such vases, there must be clean napkins, cotton or paper, which must be removed immediately after finishing the meal.

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.

Apples and pears are cut lengthwise into 4-8 pieces with a fruit knife, after which the seed nest is removed. The resulting pieces are no longer cut, but bitten off.

Very aesthetes cut these fruits into four parts, place them on a plate, and then, taking a slice on a fork, remove the skin with a knife. The hardest part is keeping the treat on the fork. The peeled piece is then eaten on a plate using a knife and fork. It is acceptable to peel the fruit in your hand, but eat it on a plate with a knife and fork.

Peaches are cut in half with a fruit knife, the pits are removed with a knife, and they are eaten with your hands.

Sweet cherries should be taken by the branch and put into the mouth. If possible, discreetly spit the bone into your fist and then onto your plate.

You can do the same with grapes. But grapes are usually eaten whole. It is unacceptable to spit out the bones directly onto a plate or collect them in an ashtray.

The plums are broken with your fingers and the pit is placed on a plate.

Raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, strawberries or other berries are eaten only with a spoon.

Strawberries should be served peeled and without stems. It is not nice to crush strawberries on a plate served with sugar and sour cream. The resulting mass does not look very aesthetically pleasing. The same rule applies to strawberries.

Compote served in a vase is eaten with a spoon. Drinking directly from a vase is unsightly. The fruit seeds are spat out onto a spoon and placed on a plate standing next to or under the vase.

Beverages

If any drink is offered before a meal, you must first swallow everything that is in your mouth and only then wash it down. It is advisable to wipe your lips with a napkin before doing this.

It's not nice to top up your drinks only for yourself. First, offer to refill the drink to your neighbors at the table.

Coffee is served with pre-diluted sugar or cream.

The teaspoon is intended for stirring sugar and cream, after which the spoon can no longer be used. It is simply placed on a saucer.

Tea and coffee are not poured into saucers.

Alcoholic drinks also need to be drunk correctly.

Cocktails are drunk in small sips with breaks.

You can drink vodka from a small glass right away, but you must remember that the glass may be refilled for you.

You can drink vodka little by little, starting from the third or fourth glass (of course, if necessary), since it is not customary to change the portion in such a situation.

You can drink to the bottom after toast only on special occasions. This is not mandatory now.

Whiskey is consumed with ice. Sometimes it is diluted with soda water.

It is advisable to drink wine, as well as liquor, in small sips.

It is advisable, but not necessary, to drink champagne and other sparkling wines immediately.

Cognac is also drunk in small sips, but with a longer break. At the same time, the glass can be in your hand, since cognac loves warmth.

What foods should you drink with which drinks?

Usually lunch or, in some cases, dinner begins with cold appetizers. Dry white wines are served with these dishes.

Light red wines are suitable for meat salads or ham.

White wines of moderate strength are served with turkey, chicken, veal liver, hot ham, fried or baked fish.

Dry red wines go well with meat dishes, such as steaks, pork cutlets, stewed liver or smoked sausages.

Long-aged red wines are more suitable for wild meat.

The same wines are served with vegetables as with meat, and exclusively red wine is served with mushrooms.

Accordingly, sweet dessert wines with a high alcohol and sugar content, liqueurs or sweet sparkling wines are served with sweet dishes.

Dry white wines go well with cheese with a delicate and delicate taste.

Spicy and savory cheeses should be paired with tart wine.

Red wines go well with game meat and other dark meats, but only white wines go with white meat, poultry or fish.

Both white and red wine go well with goose or pork, but these must be well-aged and strong wines.

Dessert

For desserts, there are special cutlery used to eat puddings, ice cream, cakes, creams, etc. When coffee, tea or sweets are served, all unnecessary dishes are removed from the table and vases with jam, sweets or cookies, plates with thinly sliced ​​lemon, and sugar are put out.

If a pie or cake is being served, each guest at the table is given a separate plate for dessert, a dessert spoon or knife is placed to the right of this plate, and a dessert fork is placed to the left.

Coffee or tea is placed near the plate on the right side with the handle turned to the left.
The cream is served hot in a special container, which in turn should be placed on a saucer.

Cakes and pies are eaten with a dessert spoon. You cannot use a fork and knife.

Pies made from puff pastry and shortcrust pastry are eaten with your hands.

Cakes and pastries are taken with a special spatula. Soft ones - creamy and biscuit - are eaten with a dessert fork (if there are none, you can use a spoon), crumbly ones can be taken by hand.

Jam and jelly are spread on bread with a knife.

Ice cream is eaten with a dessert spoon or a teaspoon.

These are just the basic rules that a well-mannered person should know.

We all know without further reminders that table etiquette rules are simply necessary. After all, having this knowledge, we feel much more comfortable and confident at any table. I was inspired to prepare this material by a girl I knew who refused to accept invitations to restaurants and cafes only because she did not know how to handle a knife and fork correctly. Now this problem has already been solved for her, but certainly certain points in food etiquette may cause us doubts. To ensure that there are as few such doubts as possible, let's look at the basic rules of etiquette at the table.

First, how to sit? Not too far from the edge of the table, but not too close either, and naturally, do not put your elbows on the table. There is a small exception for women, when she can briefly lean one elbow on the table, but only in case of emergency, for example, if her arm is tired. You should sit straight on a chair and not bend over the plate. There are no exceptions for anyone here.

Before you start your meal, you need to “deal” with the napkin. A napkin intended for individual use should be unfolded and placed on your lap. While eating, do not wipe your lips with such a napkin; for these purposes it is better to use paper ones, and only after finishing your meal can you touch your lips and wipe your fingertips with a linen napkin. Where should I put it then? Just put it on the table.

Even if you've worked up an appetite, don't gobble up food. Eat slowly to enjoy your food even more. Of course, if you like the dish, eat it to the end, but under no circumstances clean the bottom of the plate with a piece of bread. Just imagine that your tablemate will do this, isn’t it a pleasant sight?

Food is taken from a common dish using common utensils (special tongs, forks, spoons are designed for this) and transferred to your plate. Don't forget to put these devices back in their place. And don’t get confused: only use common cutlery on your plate, but not individual cutlery from a common dish. If the dish is at a fairly large distance from you, do not reach across the entire table; ask the waiter or neighbor to serve it to you.

The rules of etiquette at the table do not prohibit taking bread, cookies, cakes, fruits, citrus fruits with your hands - this is exactly what is customary. Refined sugar is also included in this category, but if you have special tongs nearby, use them.

Since we are talking about bread, it should be recalled that this is a very delicate product, one might even say that there is its own bread etiquette. For example, it is not customary to bite off a whole piece of bread. It is eaten in small pieces, which are broken off on your plate. It is also not customary to spread a whole piece of bread with butter. This is best done by gradually breaking off pieces and spreading butter on each of them. If there is a pie plate next to you, which is specially designed for bread, then put it in it, transferring the bread from the common plate. Put butter into the pie plate with a clean knife, which is then spread on pieces of bread. They do the same with caviar, only for caviar there is its own device - a special spatula. The pate can be taken either with a knife or a fork. It is also customary to take sandwiches by hand. If they are prepared as a snack, they are eaten with a knife and fork.

Hot snacks from cocotte makers or chillers are eaten with a cocotte fork or a teaspoon. Hot fish is eaten with a fish knife and fork. As a last resort, if there are no special utensils, you can use two table forks.

Now about the soup. It is eaten slowly and silently. If the soup is very hot, do not stir it with a spoon; it is better to wait until it cools down. Use a spoon to scoop it away from you and bring it to your mouth with the wide left edge. If you finish the soup, slightly lift the plate away from you with your left hand. If necessary, crush the dumplings, noodles, and potatoes in the soup with the edge of a spoon. At the end of the meal, leave the spoon on the plate.

Broths are served in cups (bouillon bowls) with one or two handles. From a cup with one handle, the broth can be drunk as tea, and from a cup with two handles it should be eaten with a spoon.

Cold fish dishes are eaten using snack utensils. However, this is what they do with all cold appetizer dishes. But hot smoked fish gastronomy - with the help of fish utensils. In all cases, if the bones get into your mouth, you should carefully and, if possible, unnoticed, remove them with your hand and place them on the edge of the plate.

Using cutlery - a knife and fork - they eat such natural meat dishes as pork and lamb chops, steaks, fillets, splints, liver, etc. In this case, the knife is held in the right hand, the fork in the left. Meatballs, cutlets, chopped zrazy, cabbage rolls, omelettes and other soft dishes, where the use of a knife would be unnecessary, are eaten with a fork, which is now held in the right hand.

Dishes and snacks made from natural meat, cheese, sausage, and ham are not immediately cut into small pieces. This causes the dish to quickly cool down and lose its appeal. It is better to cut off the pieces gradually, naturally using a knife and fork. The same is done with poultry and game.

True, there is an exception for “tabaka” chickens. It is eaten with hands, but at the same time vases or bowls with warm water for rinsing fingers. Usually pieces of lemon or rose petals are dipped into this water. In this case, clean cotton napkins must be served, or, in extreme cases, paper napkins, which are immediately removed at the end of the meal. They also eat asparagus and crayfish.

In general, for crayfish, lobsters, and lobsters, there are special devices that consist of a short fork and a spatula. From the body of the crayfish, only the meat located in the claw is eaten. Then the crayfish is turned over on its back, the neck is separated and the meat is picked out with a fork.

Sturgeon, beluga, boiled and hot smoked stellate sturgeon are eaten only with a fork.

Mustard and salt are taken with special spoons. The mustard is placed on the bottom of the plate, not on the edge, on the right side.

Soft-boiled eggs are served in a special glass (poached glass), the shell is lightly broken with a spoon, placed in a saucer, the egg is eaten carefully, trying not to spill the yolk. Scrambled eggs and omelet with ham are eaten with a fork in the right hand, and, if necessary, help with a piece of bread, holding it in the left hand.

It happens that eating needs to be temporarily interrupted. In such cases, the knife and fork are placed on the plate as they were held, the knife with the handle to the right, the fork with the handle to the left. Such cases may be a temporary absence from the table, or the need to drink water, take bread, put a piece of meat, etc.

Let's move on to dessert. For dessert dishes, special utensils are provided, with the help of which sponge cakes, puddings, ice cream, creams, etc. are eaten. When is dessert served (tea, coffee, confectionery), excess dishes, bottles, glasses, wine glasses are removed from the table. Vases with jam, sweets, cookies, plates with thinly sliced ​​lemon, sugar, and rosettes for jam are placed on the table. When a cake or pie is served, a dessert plate is placed for each guest, a dessert knife or spoon is placed to the right of it, and a dessert fork is placed to the left. Tea and coffee are placed to the right of the dessert plate, with the handle of the mug or cup turned to the left. The cream is served hot in a milk jug or creamer, which is served on a saucer. Sponge cakes are eaten with a dessert fork, sometimes with a teaspoon; hard cakes that crumble easily are eaten holding them with your hand.

Now let's talk about fruits and berries. Apples and pears are cut lengthwise into 4-8 pieces with a fruit knife on a plate, peeled and the seed nest is removed. These pieces are no longer cut, but bitten straight off. A peach or apricot is taken in the left hand and cut in a circle to the pit, after which it is broken and the pit is removed with a knife. You can cut pieces from the halves, but you can also use whole halves. Bananas are held in the left hand and peeled gradually. Berries (raspberries, strawberries) are eaten only with a teaspoon. Watermelons and melons are served cut into slices with peel. Taking a slice of watermelon from a communal plate, place it on an individual plate, skin side down, and cut thin slices with a fruit knife. The mango is cut in half on a plate, the bone is removed and the pulp is eaten with a spoon. The pineapple is peeled, cut crosswise into thin slices, placed on a plate and eaten with a knife and fork. Oranges and tangerines are eaten by cutting the peel and dividing the pulp into 5-6 parts, from which they are then separated into slices. The fruits from the compote are eaten with a dessert spoon, and with its help the seeds are placed on a saucer.

Concluding our conversation, I would like to remind you of some obvious things. For example, a teaspoon is only intended for stirring tea. After stirring tea or coffee, they no longer use it, but put it on a saucer. When cutting food, the fork is held obliquely and not perpendicular to the plate. At the end of the meal, the fork and knife are placed on the plate and not on the tablecloth.

Today we only talked about the basic rules of etiquette at the table, of which we counted a little more than 45. But the conversation about etiquette is far from over, and very soon we will definitely return to this topic. In the meantime, I want to wish you to enjoy your food not only at the height of taste, but also at the height of good manners!

Section: TABLE SERVING, DISH DECORATION, ETIQUETTE
Page 3 of the chapter "TABLE SERVING. ETIQUETTE"

AT THE TABLE
Rules of etiquette
How to eat different foods
How to eat seafood
How to use chopsticks
How to tie a tie

Often at the table you have to communicate with people of different ages, gender, profession, nationality, different cultural levels, mental makeup, etc. In your behavior, you must strive to ensure that each of those present feels free and at ease at the table, enjoying not not only from deliciously prepared dishes, but also from good serving, as well as from communication.
Therefore, it is very important to be able to behave correctly in society, to have a solid knowledge norms of behavior and rules of etiquette.

Etiquette is a set of historically established rules of human behavior in society. The rules of etiquette usually develop in close connection with the development of the culture of the people, their national traditions and are based on instilling in people politeness, attention, and respect for each other.

The rules of etiquette include, in particular, the ability to behave at the table, use cutlery correctly, etc., a skill that both hosts and guests should possess to the same extent.

“Food aesthetics” is closely related to the beauty of table setting. As one Soviet classic wrote, “Food should be beautiful down to the smallest detail.” And he was right about this - dishes and tableware cultivate a person’s aesthetic taste.

The basis of table manners is compliance with aesthetic standards, convenience and expediency. So, it is not recommended to sit too far from the edge of the table or too close and put your elbows on the table. This can embarrass your neighbor. You should sit upright on a chair, without bending over the plate. If you lean back too far in your chair, you might drip sauce onto your suit. You are not supposed to reach across the table - the waiter can put the dish on the plate.

Taking napkin, intended for individual use, you need to unfold it and place it on your lap to protect the suit or dress from drops, splashes, and crumbs. After eating, you can wipe the ends of your fingers with a napkin, but for your lips it is better to use your own handkerchief. After finishing the meal, the napkin is placed on the table without folding.

For children, a napkin is tucked into their collar.

While eating, you need to take care of yourself, following the established rules.

An unaesthetic manner of eating causes irritation among others. Eating with appetite does not mean eating hastily. If you like the dish, you can finish it to the end, but a piece of bread on the end of a fork, which is sometimes used to clear the plate of the remnants of the dish, looks ugly.

Usually food is taken using a fork, spoon, spatula or tongs, but a number of foods are taken by hand. These are bread, cookies, cakes, fruits and citrus fruits, sugar (if tongs are not provided for it). This order was not adopted by chance: these products do not need to be divided with a knife or fork, they do not stain your fingers, your hand touches only one piece, which is then placed on your plate or in a cup.

A number of rules are caused by aesthetic requirements. Thus, it is unsightly to bite off a large piece of bread or a whole roll, so small pieces are broken off with your fingers as needed; sometimes the bread is pre-cut into small pieces. When serving caviar, first place it on a plate with a spatula and then spread it on small pieces of bread. After eating the first piece, you can spread the second, etc. They eat pates and butter in the same way, using special knives for spreading.

There are certain rules when using cutlery.

So, they eat cold appetizers snack fork and knife;
hot from a cocotte maker or chiller - cocotte fork or teaspoon;
hot fish - fish knife and fork;
hot meat dishes - using table knife and fork;
dessert dishes (pudding, ice cream) - using spoons;
fruits - using fruit knife and fork and so on.

The spoon is held so that the thumb lies on top of its handle. The soup is eaten by scooping it away from you with a spoon, otherwise you might splatter your suit. You need to scoop up as much liquid as you can bring to your mouth without spilling. You must ensure that the soup does not flow from the spoon back into the plate.
The spoon is brought to the mouth with the left wide edge.

You are not supposed to cool the soup by stirring with a spoon; it is better to wait until it has cooled down a little. Likewise, you should not blow into a plate, cup or spoon. The soup is eaten quietly, silently; in order to finish it, it is not forbidden to slightly lift the edge of the plate away from you with your left hand.

After finishing eating the soup, you should leave the spoon in the plate. They do the same thing without finishing the soup completely.

Dumplings and meatballs in soup are divided into parts not with a knife, but with a spoon.

If soup meat is served separately on a platter or in a bowl, you need to take a piece, cut it with a knife and fork, and only then put it in a plate with soup.

The grounds are eaten at the same time as the liquid. When adding soup to yourself, leave the spoon in the plate. Broth and puree soup are served mainly in a cup and are usually eaten with a dessert spoon, with the handle of the cup held with the left hand. Only the remainder is drunk from the cup.

When using a fork and knife while eating, the knife is held in the right hand and the fork in the left hand.
When eating only with a fork, it is taken in the right hand.
Do not take a fork, knife or spoon too close to the base.
You cannot take with a spoon what you can take with a fork.
You can take as much on the fork as will fit on it without falling off.

For help knife have to resort to it quite often. They use it to cut fish gastronomy and meat (beef, pork, lamb, veal, elk, wild boar, saiga, bear, hare, poultry, game).

Do not cut several pieces at once - the meat will cool down and become tasteless. This way can only be cut by children who are not yet accustomed to eating on their own or who only know how to use a fork.

Dumplings, dumplings, and boiled vegetables are not cut with a knife, but, if necessary, divided into pieces with a fork.

If there are cutlets, zrazy, meatballs, cabbage rolls or other chopped dishes on the table, using a knife is unnecessary. They are eaten with a fork, held in the right hand.

Using a piece of bread with your right hand, you can help put a piece of food from a plate on a fork. Dishes such as omelettes, vegetables, casseroles are eaten only with a fork.

The knife used to cut meat is not used to take salt from a salt shaker or food from a common dish.

Do not crumble bread into a sauce or other dish. If you fail to eat the sauce with the main product - meat, poultry, fish, it is better to leave it on the plate.

If you have to temporarily interrupt the meal to drink water, take bread, put a piece of meat, put the knife and fork on the plate the way they were held: the knife with the handle to the right, and the fork to the left.

After finishing the meal, the knife and fork are placed on the plate parallel with the handles to the left next to each other. This is a sign (to the waiter, serving persons) to remove the plate.

If someone asks to hand over the utensils, then knives, forks, spoons passed with the handle forward. In this case, you can take the device yourself by the neutral middle (for example, in the place where the knife connects to the handle). This will prevent your fingers from contaminating the device.

How to eat different foods

Poultry and game are eaten with a knife and fork (but not with your hands). However, when cutting meat into pieces, you should not use too much force, as the cut piece can easily slip out of the plate onto the tablecloth.

Some dishes, in particular asparagus, chicken-tobacco, crayfish, are sometimes allowed to be eaten with hands (although still better use cutlery). In this case, after eating, a bowl of warm water is served for washing hands, into which a piece of lemon or rose petals is dipped. At the same time, napkins are provided to wipe your fingers, and then everything is removed.

Crayfish, lobsters, and lobsters are eaten using a special device, which consists of a short fork and a spatula. From the body of the crayfish, only the meat located in the claw is eaten. Then the crayfish is turned over on its back, the neck is separated from the body and the meat is selected with a fork.

Often, for convenience and in order not to get your hands dirty, they put it on the bone of a lamb or pork chop. paper curlers. Holding it by the curler, you can easily cut the meat from the bone. Sometimes small plates for bones (meat and fish) are specially placed on the left side of the table.

Hot fish (pike perch, bream, carp) It is customary to eat using a special device so as not to cut the bones. The blunt blade of the knife of this device has a spade shape, and the fork has four teeth. If you don’t have such utensils, you can eat fish using two forks. They eat fish with one fork, holding it in their right hand and helping themselves with a piece of bread in their left hand. Using a fork, the bones are placed on the edge of the plate or on a saucer or plate intended for this purpose.

Fish gastronomy - beluga flank, sturgeon, salmon and other fish- cut with a sharp snack knife. Sturgeon, beluga, boiled and hot smoked stellate sturgeon are eaten only with a fork.

With smoked fish First the skin is removed, then the meat is separated from the bones. After the top part is eaten, the fish is turned over to the other side and eaten further. Fish, like meat, is cut into small pieces. (When you eat fish, try not to remove the bones from your mouth in front of everyone.)

Potatoes and vegetables, like other soft foods, they are not cut with a knife, but cut into pieces with a fork in the left hand, the knife only holding the potatoes. Only cut the crispy skin of the potato, as it is hard for the fork. Potatoes, boiled “in their jackets,” are held with a fork and peeled with a knife in the right hand. The peeled potatoes are placed on a plate set out for this purpose.

The sauce is not poured onto potatoes or vegetables, since it is intended for meat or fish and the appearance of potatoes or vegetables becomes unappetizing. You should try to eat the sauce with the main food so that it does not remain on the plate.

Salads, intended as an addition to the roast and served on small plates, each separately, eaten directly from them, without transferring them to a larger plate. The liquid from the salads is not eaten up with a spoon, but is left in the plate. Green salad is not cut - it must already be cut in the kitchen.

Salad served in a vase Place it on your plate with a spoon and fork attached to the salad. Separately served, radishes with herbs cut into “roses”, as well as celery, are taken by hand and, dipped in salt on your plate, they are bitten off. The rest is placed on the edge of your plate or in a small plate intended for this.

Sandwiches are eaten with a knife and fork. To prepare sandwiches, put bread and butter on your plate, then spread a slice of bread, which you hold on the plate with two fingers (do not hold the bread on your palm, as this is unhygienic). Sausage, slices of meat, etc. are placed on the sandwich with a fork.

When eating bread with honey, jam or jam, First they put it on strips, take honey, jam or jam on a plate and spread it on small pieces of bread, then bite it off. The strip of bread is held on the plate with the fingers of the left hand.

Pieces of kulebyaki and pie are eaten with a knife and fork; The pies are small - held with your fingers. If the pies are very fatty, they can also be eaten with a knife and fork.

Oil, if it is served in a large piece, take it with a special knife (a ball or a rose, you can take butter barrels with your knife). A piece of butter is placed on the right side of the bread or dessert plate and only taken from there to spread on the bread or roll.

Mustard and salt take it with special spoons. The mustard is placed on the bottom of the plate (not on the edge) on the right side.

Scrambled eggs served in an egg glass. The shell is easily broken with a spoon. The fragments are removed with your fingers and placed in a saucer on which an egg glass stands. Then carefully remove the top from the egg with a spoon so that the yolk does not spill. Hard-boiled eggs are peeled to the end, cut lengthwise into two halves and then gradually dismembered with a fork.

Scrambled eggs and omelet with ham they eat with a fork in the right hand. If necessary, help with a piece of bread, holding it in your left hand. Fried eggs are eaten with a plastic or stainless steel spoon. Fried eggs with large pieces of ham that need to be cut are eaten with a knife and fork.

Pasta usually crushed before serving. If they are longer than necessary, they should be cut with a fork. A spoon is used only to wrap long pasta (spaghetti) onto a fork.

Dumplings Eat whole with a fork so that the juice does not flow out of them.

Sausages and ham served in slices; The skin must first be removed. The slices are placed on your plate with a fork located at the common dish.
If the skin of the sausage or ham is not peeled, cut it off with a knife, holding the slice on your plate with a fork.
Served on the table hot sausages "shpikachek" The entire skin is not removed at once, but is done gradually as you eat. This way the bacon stays hot longer. Thin sausages, such as frankfurters and hunting sausages, do not have the skin removed.
peel liver sausage cut off gradually, because if this sausage is removed from the casing, it becomes ugly. Pieces of sausage are pressed onto a plate with a fork and a cut is made from the inside with a knife, then the skin is removed using a knife.

Kulebyaki, pies and pretzels, cakes are served sliced. Place their pieces on your plate with a spatula, tongs or a large fork.

Cakes eat with a special fork or teaspoon. Hard cakes - almond, nut, which crumble easily - can be eaten with your hand. The cake in the paper rosette is placed on a plate along with the rosette and eaten from it.

From chunks pretzel, small pretzels and other products that can crumble, break off a small piece by hand. Take a bite out of a bun filled with cream or jam, coffee buns, etc., holding them in your hand.

From cookies break off a piece and eat. Very fatty muffins are eaten with a dessert fork.

Candies take it with your hands. At the festive table they are placed on their plate, unwrapped and then put into their mouth.

Lemon served as a seasoning for food and drinks. A slice of lemon is placed in a cup of tea, the juice is squeezed out with a spoon, the remainder is removed and placed on the edge of the saucer.
If the lemon is served cut into slices, like “garlic,” the juice is squeezed over the glass with the index and thumb of the right hand.
When serving some dishes (for example, fish, schnitzel, etc.), the juice from a lemon slice is squeezed out with the convex side of a fork.

Apple and pear cut lengthwise into four or eight pieces with a fruit knife on a plate. They are then cleaned and cored. These pieces are no longer cut, but bitten off.

Peaches and apricots they eat differently. A large peach is taken in the left hand and cut in a circle to the pit, then broken. The bone is removed with a knife. When eating, cut pieces from halves. An apricot is much smaller than a peach, so it is not cut into pieces, but placed in half directly into the mouth.

Big plums Break it in half with your fingers and remove the bone.
small plum squeeze the ends so that it bursts, and remove the bone with a knife.

Banana take the bottom with your left hand and cut the top with a knife so that it is convenient to remove the peel from it. Since a long banana without peel can break, it is first peeled only halfway. They eat a banana while holding it with their hand. Banana peels are placed on a plate.

Berries usually served in a vase or in portions already placed on plates, otherwise they are easily crushed (especially strawberries and raspberries). They are sprinkled with sugar and eaten with a teaspoon. On more special occasions, the berries are served with whipped cream.

Grape They eat by picking berries from the bunch with their fingers. Place one berry in your mouth. The seeds and hard skins are carefully dropped onto a plate.

Cherries and other berries and fruits with small seeds eaten like grapes.

Watermelons and melons served in sliced ​​sections with peel. A thick slice taken from the dish is placed on a plate, skin side down, and a thin piece is cut off with a fruit knife and fork. If the watermelon and melon are unsweetened, if desired, sprinkle them with powdered sugar and use a fruit knife and fork (or teaspoon) to eat the pulp until the skin is firm.

Mango cut into two parts on a plate, remove the bone and eat the pulp with a spoon.

A pineapple peel and cut crosswise into thin slices, place on a plate or glass dish. From the dish, the slice is transferred to your plate using the fork attached for this purpose. If desired, you can sprinkle it with sugar. Eat pineapple with a fruit knife and fork or a teaspoon.

Nuts They never click their teeth, but split them with special forceps. The contents are removed from the shell with your fingers and placed in your mouth.

After tasting the fruit, wipe your hands with a paper napkin and place it on a fruit plate.

Compotes eaten with a dessert spoon. Place the bones with a spoon on a saucer. Until the meal is finished, it is customary to place a spoon in a vase with compote, and when finished it is placed on a saucer.
The liquid is always scooped out with a spoon.

Oranges and tangerines They eat by trimming the peel and dividing the pulp into five to six parts. A small slice is gradually separated from each of them. This way you can eat the orange without using a fork and knife.

Puddings, ice cream, creams eaten with a dessert spoon. It is customary to serve them with croutons, cookies, and puff pastries, which are taken by hand. Mousses are also eaten with a dessert spoon.

teaspoon serves only for stirring tea. After mixing tea and coffee, place the spoon on a saucer rather than leaving it in a glass or cup.

How to eat seafood
You can’t forbid eating beautifully:
how to deal with lobsters, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, mussels and oysters

Eating seafood in style is one of the most difficult topics at table skills courses.
They say that seafood is one of the most difficult topics in table etiquette courses. However, if you are not going to a reception with one of the European monarchs, there is no need to worry too much.
Always remember that all the rules and numerous devices are not intended at all so that any of the guests can boast of knowing the intricacies of etiquette, but solely for your convenience, so that you can quickly cope with the nimble claws of a lobster or quickly get to the juicy meat of king prawns.
So just a little practice and you will succeed!

Set of cutlery for seafood.

Shrimps

Most often we meet shrimp at dinner parties and guests. They like to be served at buffets or before a formal reception as a light appetizer. Usually, large specimens are selected for this and pierced with toothpicks. It is customary to eat such giants whole, after dipping them into the nearby sauce.
If huge shrimps are served as a main course, then they are eaten with a knife and fork: first, the head and tail are disconnected, the middle is poured with lemon juice and eaten, cutting off convenient pieces.
Master chefs usually leave a tail on fried shrimp, which you need to grab with your hands, dip in the sauce and eat.
The most difficult task will confront you if there are unpeeled shrimp on the table. With your left hand, carefully grab them by the head, with your right hand, firmly grab the thick part of the tail and turn it a little so that the shell opens, then use a fork to remove the meat.
Leave the shells on the edge of the plate or on a saucer set aside specifically for garbage.
You can handle lobsters in the same way by breaking off the heads and scooping out the meat with a narrow oyster fork.

Cancers

Crayfish are served either floating in the water in which they were boiled, or taken out of it and placed on a platter.
If there is no waiter nearby, you will have to use a ladle or tongs to move the chosen beauty to your plate.
To the right of it you will find an unusual knife with a hole. This device is needed to split the shell of the crayfish, and then, by inserting a claw into the hole, press harder and break it.
After all these almost surgical maneuvers, we begin the meal: we slowly eat and suck the meat from the claws and paws, holding them with our hands.
Then, turning the river miracle on its back, separate the back part and remove the meat from it with a fork.

Lobsters and lobsters

If you have mastered the intricacies of eating river arthropods, then you can easily cope with their marine relatives - lobsters and lobsters. Their shell is usually stronger, so it is customary to split it with tongs. However, sometimes cooks take on this hard physical work, breaking the lobster’s protection in the kitchen. The same device is used to prick claws that are too strong.
You probably guess that a huge lobster on a huge platter is not only intended for you?
Feel free to break off parts of it and put it on your plate!
If you find yourself in front of an unusual “spoon-fork”, then know that you should pick out the meat from the paws, claws and shell with a hook-tooth located at one end, and scoop out the juice with a spoon at the other end.

Mussels

Small tongs designed for splitting shells and an oyster fork will help you deal with mussels elegantly.
Open the clam's shelter, take the shell with your right hand, bring it to your mouth and, as it were, suck out the mussel and sauce.
If there is only meat, pick it out with a fork.
The remaining sauce from the plate can be eaten with a spoon.

Oysters

Raw oysters are served already opened.
However, if you bought them in a store, then before you decorate the table with them, separate the halves using a special dull knife with a thin rounded blade and arrange them beautifully on a large dish filled with finely crushed ice.
Place lemon halves or quarters on the same plate.

These inhabitants of the deep sea are eaten using a special tiny thin narrow long fork.
Holding the shell with the thumb and forefinger of your left hand, sprinkle the oyster with lemon juice and carefully and silently suck out the liquid. After that, taking a fork in your right hand, pick up the shellfish and eat.
There are usually no problems with fried oysters: they can be put into your mouth with a regular fork.
Got your hands dirty? No problem! If you have to eat seafood not only with utensils, there are usually bowls on the table (sometimes with a slice of lemon floating in them) so that you can rinse your dirty fingers and then wipe them with a napkin.

Vegetable etiquette:
how to eat dip and artichokes

The green peas fell off the fork and fell out of the plate, the olive flew into the neckline of the lady sitting next to him, the lettuce and bell pepper turned out to be too big, and the artichoke generally caused a state of shock: how to approach it? To prevent such anecdotal situations from happening to us, we learn the rules of vegetable etiquette.

Salad: appetizer and side dish

If fresh vegetables are served as a salad or vinaigrette, i.e. cut into small pieces and completely ready to eat, which means you need to eat them in the classic way - with a knife and fork.
Utensils for appetizers are usually slightly smaller in size than for main courses.
When a salad comes as a side dish to a main course and is served with a cutlet, steak or chicken on the same plate, we boldly pick up a large knife and fork and start the meal.
The knife will be especially useful if the dish contains a decent slice of bell pepper, a whole leaf lettuce, or an edible decoration - artistically chopped tomatoes, cucumbers or radishes. Just don’t grind everything at once - separate small pieces only before putting them in your mouth.
If you are being treated not to raw vegetables, but to boiled, stewed or steamed chopped vegetables, then you will only need a knife to help them put the dish on the fork. The processed fruits are too soft, and there is no need to further cut them in the plate.

Vegetable mix

At buffets, banquets and festive feasts, a large plate with a dish called “Sliced ​​Vegetables” is often served.
It is usually accompanied by common cutlery (tongs or a fork) for serving on individual plates.
Having used them, we return them back and pick up a knife and fork (it is indecent to take vegetables from a plate with your hands).
If the salad leaves and greens (dill, arugula) are too big, but soft enough, then you need to carefully wrap them around a fork and only then put them in your mouth. If they are hard, cut them into pieces.

Dip rules

When vegetables cut into even slices are served with sauces, such dishes are called dips.
Radishes, pieces of celery, carrots and tiny cherry tomatoes on skewers are usually dipped into the sauce and put into the mouth whole. If the slice turns out to be too large, after biting it, do not dip it into a common gravy boat. Moreover, this rule applies not only to official feasts in luxurious restaurant halls, but also to democratic picnics.
Of course, everything is simpler in nature, but this does not mean that it is time to forget about etiquette!

Peas, corn and olives

If handled improperly, nimble peas and corn can turn into real flying projectiles, striking all living things around. To prevent this from happening, we will treat them especially carefully.
Having pricked a piece of the main dish onto the ends of the tines of a fork, turn it over with the concave side up and, helping yourself with a knife, put some peas on it (like on a spoon).
If the nimble balls try to slip away from the plate, before you pick them up, press them down a little with a fork, and they will immediately become more obedient.
But it is not recommended to pin peas onto the teeth.
Olives, olives and small cherry tomatoes are treated slightly differently than peas and corn. To taste them, special tiny forks or skewers should be provided (sometimes the fruits are already pricked on them). All we have to do is stick them into the fruit, eat it, and put the device on the edge of the plate.
However, if the meal is informal, it is quite possible to take small fruits with your hands.

Potato passions

Eating various potato dishes correctly is a special science.
For example, puree should be eaten with a knife and fork, placing small portions of food on top of the latter.
If there is a large boiled potato on the plate, the fork comes to the fore - we break off small pieces with its edge and use a knife to help put the side dish on the device (it is not customary to prick the tines).
Special skill is required to eat jacket potatoes beautifully. Take a fork in your left hand and hold the tuber, and with your right hand, carefully remove the skin using a knife.
There is another way: cut the potatoes into halves and extract the pulp with a fork.

"Difficult" artichoke

Perhaps the most “difficult” vegetable is the artichoke.
In Russia, it rarely appears on the table, but the risk of encountering it during a feast somewhere in Europe is very high.
First, carefully, so as not to injure your hands, remove the leaves of the “bud”.
Then we dip them in the sauce and, trying not to make loud, indecent sounds, we suck the pulp out of the hard shells.
As soon as we deal with the leaves, you need to rinse your hands in a bowl of water and eat the core with a fork and knife.

Important
Fast food dictates its own rules, so if you snack on French fries on the run, feel free to eat them with your hands.
But in a formal setting, this simple dish, served as a side dish, must be consumed according to all the rules, that is, with a knife and fork.

Rules of etiquette:
how to eat game

When you see an appetizing crispy hen or chicken, you just want to take the bird in your hands and gnaw off all the bones. This is probably what primitive man would have done. But we are civilized people, which means we will have to feast on game according to all the rules of etiquette

Fillet, cutlets, meatballs

What kind of birds don’t end up on our table!
Excellent dishes are prepared from fattened domestic chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, hunted wild quails, partridges and hazel grouse. Poultry meat dishes are tasty, moderately fatty, but enjoying them according to all the rules is not easy.
You can easily eat only tender fillet, chicken roll or chicken Kiev: you just need to arm yourself with a fork and knife, carefully cut off a delicious piece and put it in your mouth.
The main thing is that the slices are small and that you have a napkin on your lap, which will save you from suddenly dripping sauce or fat.
It is also easy to deal with chopped poultry in the form of cutlets, meatballs, meatballs, because soft minced meat dishes should only be eaten with a fork.

Shin, wing, thigh

If what appears on the plate is not a fillet, but a bird with bones - a leg, thigh, wings or half a carcass (for example, tobacco chicken), you will have to work hard and follow the main rule: in an official setting, you don’t eat game with your hands! Otherwise, you need to rinse your dirty fingers regularly, and forget about the side dish altogether - don’t pick up cutlery with greasy fingers.
So, in order not to fall flat on your face, arm yourself with a fork and knife and first of all, remove the skin from the bird.
Then, holding the portion with the teeth of a fork, cut thin slices of meat and eat them immediately.
You should not first remove the fillet from the bones, form a pyramid of scraps on the plate, and then gobble it up deliciously.
In addition, the fascinating process of gutting a chicken should not interfere with your communication with your neighbors at the table: a person picking at a wing for too long looks rather ridiculous.
If you cannot cope with small fragments, it is better to leave the food uneaten.
By the way, when wings or legs are served in broth, first the liquid is eaten with a tablespoon, and then, using a fork and knife, the meat is separated from the bones and eaten as a second course.

Leg

At home, visiting friends and relatives, you can relax - the rules of etiquette in an informal setting are not too strict.
A bowl of water and a slice of lemon (a finger rinse), disposable wet wipes handed out to guests, or a paper “cap” placed on a large chicken foot bone signal that you can put the utensils aside and feel a little savage.
Carefully, with the tips of the thumb and forefinger of your right hand, take the leg by the bone or the curler put on it (in the case of wings, proceed in a similar way) and slowly bite off pieces of meat and gnaw small bones. But under no circumstances chew them.
A person who crunches bones and sucks out the insides looks indecent even when surrounded by close people.
Having finished with the bird, you need to carefully lower your fingertips into the bowl, but do not dangle them, so as not to splash your neighbors, and do not immerse them too deeply.
Lemon juice It will quickly rid the skin of grease and specific odor, so you just need to lightly dip your hands and wipe them with a napkin.

Grilled chicken

Sometimes at large feasts, baked goose, duck, chicken or turkey are placed on the table entirely. In this case, the waiter (if it happens in a restaurant) or the owner (hostess) of the house must cut the carcass.
But first you have to study the anatomy of the bird.
First, the wings are separated, then the transverse pieces are cut off from the chest, followed by the bones from the sides.
Make sure that all the pieces are approximately equal with the same amount of meat.
In order not to offend anyone, white meat from the breast is sometimes added to portions with legs and ribs.
If the chicken was stewed in sauce, you should make sure that every piece is poured with it.

Subtleties of etiquette:
how to eat pancakes

Golden, rosy, delicious, piping hot pancakes just begging to be put into your mouth! Just how should you eat them - with your hands or a fork, biting or cutting? There are rules about this

Each filling has its place

The main rule for “absorbing” pancakes is that they must be eaten hot!
Place the sunny treat in a pile in the center of the table and don’t forget to serve it with a variety of fillings.
If you choose salty snacks, place salmon or herring fillets (no bones!) in a shallow plate with a shared fork, and caviar in a crystal rosette with a spoon.
Provide each guest with individual dessert utensils and cutlery so that he can take the treat from the common tableware, return it to its place and use his own.
Jam, sour cream and honey are served using the same principle.
Empty rosettes with teaspoons are placed next to the guest's plate - whatever filling he wants, he will put it there.
If you cook pancakes with minced meat, you will have to serve hot broth along with them. It needs to be poured into small bowls, distributed to each guest and proceed to the most enjoyable part - tasting.

According to Russian tradition

An ancient Russian proverb says: “Damn is not a haystack, you can’t prick it with a pitchfork.”
In the old days, each round piece was considered a ritual dish, a symbol of the sun, the onset of spring and hope for a satisfying life.
“Sunny” was simply cruel to cut with a knife and skewer on a fork.
You were supposed to take the pancake with your hands, dip it in the filling you liked, or wrap pieces of fish in it and bite into it with relish.
At home, you can easily follow folk traditions and, without hesitation, smear your hands in fat. Place the pancakes in envelopes or roll them into rolls and enjoy the deliciousness.
If the treats contain cottage cheese, meat or other fillings, also do not be shy about eating them with your hands and do not scold your child for such behavior.
The main thing before a meal is to stock up on napkins so that you have something to wipe off the grease later.

At the buffet table, and more

We eat pancakes not only at home, but also when visiting, at lunch with colleagues, during business negotiations and romantic meetings.
In an official setting, you should completely forget folk etiquette and remember how to use a knife and fork correctly. It’s good if at a buffet table the famous dish is served in portions.
All you have to do is hold the edge of the pancake with a fork, cut a small slice from the tube or envelope and put it in your mouth.
If the treat is displayed in a pile on the table in a heat-resistant container, the task becomes more complicated.
With one tine of a fork you need to be able to hook the edge of the top sun round and, rotating the cutlery away from you, roll the pancake into a tube.
In this form, transfer the treat to your plate, unwrap it and spread any filling with a knife.
Then turn the “sun” into a tube again and only after that start cutting it into slices.
If the filling is liquid (honey, sour cream, jam or berry sauce) and is in an individual socket, do not unwrap the pancake, but immediately chop it into pieces and dip it into the treat you like.

Sauce tricks:
serve and eat according to the rules of etiquette

Just as a bad sauce can ruin the most exquisite dish, so handling it incorrectly (licking the sauce boat, splashing it on the tablecloth) can ruin your reputation. Well, to avoid disaster, you just need to follow the rules of sauce etiquette.

Where to put the gravy boat?

The sauce is usually served in a gravy boat - a small and very elegant oblong cup with a spout and one handle. They place it not on a tablecloth, which can be accidentally stained by drops, but on a saucer covered with a napkin.
If the sauce is intended individually for each guest, then a tiny cup is placed on the left, above the pie plate.
In this case, the spout of the vessel should be directed to the right. The handle of a teaspoon or dessert spoon, which lies on the saucer, also looks there: it is needed to scoop up aromatic, tasty liquid.
If the sauce is poured not into individual bowls, but into common ones, then they are placed next to the food. And they use special spoons. They are somewhat larger and deeper than tea ones, and are also equipped with a small spout.

Don't pour it on the side dish

It is advisable that the hostess or waiter pour the sauce from a common bowl - this will be safer for everyone.
However, guests often decide to cope with this task on their own and run the device in a circle.
In this case, carefully take the saucer with the bowl and carefully scoop the sauce with a spoon.
Try to pour it on the main dish, not as a side dish.
It is believed that the taste of the dressing is created in order to set off and emphasize the advantages of the main dish, and mashed potatoes or vegetables drenched in thick liquid become ugly and unappetizing.
If you didn’t have time to dip the meat into the sauce in time and decided to pour it on the weight right on the fork, stop: you can’t do that. It is better to eat a dry piece than to be considered an ill-mannered person.

Licking and dipping are not allowed

Pour the sauce carefully so as not to drip onto the tablecloth.
If a couple of multi-colored spots still remain on the snow-white surface of the table and the waiter does not come to the rescue in time, do not draw attention to it, just blot the drops with a napkin or cover the dirty area with it.
There should be enough sauce for everyone present, so don’t be greedy when putting it on the plate.
And try to calculate the amount so that you can finish it along with the rest of your food.
If your eye fails, there is nothing you can do - at a gala dinner, even the most delicious dressing will have to be left on the dish. You're not hungry enough to lick the plate.
It is also indecent to move pieces of bread in puddles of sauce and then suck them deliciously.
As a last resort and only in an informal setting, you can put the crumb into the sauce and then remove it from the plate using a fork.

Hybrid knife and spoon

If you are served a dish with sauce already on the plate, the tasting rules will be slightly different.
A special spoon is added to personal forks and knives.
True, it is not very easy to recognize it, because cutlery designers cannot come to a common decision.
Most often, it is similar to a dessert spoon, but flatter so that it is easier to scoop out the gravy.
Fish dishes can be served with an even more fancy device, similar to a hybrid of a knife and a spoon. It’s good for them to separate the pieces of fillet and immediately pour the sauce over them.

Deep subtleties

There are foods that are usually dipped in sauce. For example, this is how they deal with shellfish: first, using a special fork, they are removed from their shells, then carefully immersed in an individual sauce boat, and only then eaten.
Thick dips are also intended for dipping.
Usually they are placed in the center, and cubes of fresh vegetables are laid out around them.
You need to take a cucumber (carrot, celery, artichoke leaves) with your hands, plunge it into a bowl and eat it.
Once you have taken a bite, do not dip the vegetable into the same gravy boat again - it is indecent and unhygienic.

Soy Tricks

Sushi (sushi) or sashimi is usually consumed with soy sauce, which is served in special small cups. To enjoy this Japanese dish, you need to carefully pick up rice balls or fish with chopsticks and dip them into the sauce. Moreover, it is not the rice side that is dipped in the soy liquid, but the fish side.
In the same way, it is customary to flavor traditional Thai sticky rice with sauce, especially common in the north of the country. Small cups with several refills are usually placed in the middle of the table. According to local etiquette, you need to pinch off a small lump from the viscous mass of grains with your hand and then dip it into a common bowl with the sauce you like. You just need to do this carefully - an unfamiliar dressing may be too spicy.

Language of knives and forks:
how not to go hungry at a reception

Sign language in a restaurant often replaces words. To be understood correctly, you need to master it perfectly.
There have probably been times in your life when you went out to make a phone call at a restaurant and left a half-empty plate on the table, hoping to finish the salad you liked later. But here’s the horror: you come back, and the dish has already been taken away! And in this situation, there is no need to scold the waiter - you probably yourself let him know that lunch is over. Sign language in a restaurant often replaces words. To be understood correctly, you need to master it perfectly.

The meal continues

Most signs at the table are usually given using cutlery. If you want to free your hands for a while (to take bread or calmly talk with a neighbor), the fork should be placed on the left and the knife on the right so that their handles rest on the table, and their tips, slightly turned away from the eater, on the plate. If you only use a fork, place it to your right in the same way.
Sometimes during a meal you need to rest a little, go about your business, go out for a smoke or talk on the phone. There are signals for such long pauses. The cutlery is crossed on the plate, with the knife placed with the tip to the left, and the fork with the tines to the right. This will be a sign to the waiter that the meal is not over yet and there is no need to take the dish away. This rule is sometimes even too scrupulously observed in European countries. Sometimes people sitting at the table wait a long time for the next dish only because one of them does not know the rules of etiquette (crossed the cutlery on the plate), because in restaurants it is customary to change the dishes of the whole company at the same time, and a trained waiter will wait until everything is ready. will finish.

Lunch is over!

If you want to show the waiter that it’s time to clear your plate, you don’t need to move it away from you or throw dirty napkins at it. It is enough to simply place the devices parallel to each other so that the handles correspond to the arrows pointing to half past five. In this case, the blade of the knife faces the eater, and the tines of the fork face up. In the same way, you should put down your fork and spoon after you eat dessert.

Signal spoon

It is more difficult to correctly signal the waiter with a tablespoon. Usually the soup is served in a deep plate placed on a shallow one. After finishing a meal, in European restaurants it is customary to remove the spoon and place it on the lower dish. A device left in the soup will be taken as a sign that the guest wants to continue tasting. In our restaurants, it is considered acceptable to leave a spoon on your plate, regardless of whether you decide to just rest or finish your meal. An attentive waiter, of course, will clarify what exactly you mean, but if you don’t want to part with the soup ahead of time, make sure that it is not inadvertently taken away.
It is customary to do the same thing when salads or desserts are served in deep vases or bowls, where it is impossible to put a knife or fork. Such dishes are usually placed on a shallow serving dish. Until you finish tasting, let your fork and knife rest on it with the tips, like on a regular plate, and finally place the utensils parallel - this should attract the waiter's attention. If the vase allows, it is permissible to leave the spoon directly in it.

Eastern wisdom

Oriental restaurants have their own wisdom. If you're in a Chinese restaurant, finish your meal by placing your chopsticks across the bowl with the ends to the left - this will signal to the waiter that it is time to remove the extra utensils. But in a Japanese establishment you cannot do this. During and after the end of the meal, hashi is placed in its original place, that is, on a rectangular stand, with the sharp ends up.

Napkin by the plate

A cloth napkin also has its own signaling system.
If you decide to leave the table for a while, you should leave it on the chair, and when you return, carefully fold it in half again and place it on your lap.
When you leave a restaurant, you should place the napkin with the used side inward to the left of the plate - then the waiter will understand that the person will not come again and his dishes can be removed.
The main thing is never put cloth napkins in dishes!
It’s also not worth folding them carefully or trying to give them their original appearance by constructing figures.

Confusion at the table:
how to get out of a stupid situation gracefully

There was a fly in the bowl of soup, a large piece of meat in a fatty sauce fell on the tablecloth, the fork fell on the floor, you choked, sneezed, choked, ate a hot chili pepper... Alas, sooner or later this can happen to each of us. The main thing is not to panic and not to attract attention to yourself, but to remember how to behave in awkward situations.

Pasta fell, fell on the floor

When a piece of broccoli or chicken falls from your fork onto the tablecloth, carefully pick it up with a knife, place it on the edge of the plate and pretend as if nothing happened. It’s a completely different matter if the slice turned out to be not dry, but generously flavored with fatty sauce, which left a bright mark on the table. In this case (and also when we spill a drink), blot the dirty area with a napkin and leave it on the tablecloth to cover the traces of the crime. Believe me, if you do not actively ask for forgiveness from everyone present, but simply smile guiltily, the incident will be forgotten very quickly.
However, during a party, unruly food can land not only on the table, but also on your outfit. In this situation, simply wipe the stain with a napkin. If you managed to knock over a full plate of soup on yourself, apologize, leave the table and clean yourself up in the toilet. It's much worse if you splash your neighbor. In this case, ask for forgiveness and do everything possible to eliminate the consequences of the embarrassment.
It's a completely different matter when food or cutlery falls on the floor. In such a situation, there is no need to jump off your chair and crawl under the table in search of a rolled olive or a “runaway” fork. According to etiquette, you should not pick up anything from the floor: what falls is lost! In order to get new devices, just contact the waiter.

Apchhi!

Adults constantly remind children of the well-known proverb “When I eat, I am deaf and dumb,” but they themselves, as a rule, actively support table conversation, risking choking on food. If a similar problem happens to you, take a sip of water and cough a couple of times, covering your mouth with your hand, or even better, with a handkerchief. If you can’t overcome the cough, apologize, leave the table and try to come to your senses in another room. And do this even before the moment when those around you start pounding on your back (which, by the way, doctors do not recommend).
If a cough torments you because you are sick, be sure to carry lozenges with you, or even better, stay at home until you are completely recovered. You should not go out in public even if you have a severe runny nose. But if you absolutely must attend an important banquet and during the meal you feel that it is impossible not to blow your nose, do it as quietly as possible. And be sure to wear it in a scarf, not a napkin! If you don’t have it at hand, go to the toilet.
Sneezing loudly at the table is also a sign of bad manners. Therefore, as soon as you feel that your nose is stuffy, quietly rub the bridge of your nose with your hand - this usually manages to pacify the desire to make a savory “apchhi!” If you don’t have time to stop the sneeze, cover your mouth with a handkerchief (or at least with your hand) and turn away from people and food.

Fire on the tongue

When waiters serve hot food, they usually warn guests to be careful.
But if you do put a piece of food that is too hot into your mouth, quickly wash it down with any drink. This is more effective and respectable than opening your mouth wide, sticking out your tongue, and vigorously waving your arms to force air and attract attention.
If the food turns out to be not hot, but too spicy, on the contrary, under no circumstances reach for a glass of water.
It is better to eat dishes with pepper with something neutral - rice, potatoes, pasta.
It happens that it is completely impossible to swallow spicy (sour, salty, bitter) food. In this case, discreetly (as if you were wiping your lips), bring a napkin to your mouth and spit a piece into it.

Fly in a plate

Another trouble that can await the taster at the table is hair, flies and other inedible objects on the plate.
In this case, act according to the circumstances.
For example, if an unintelligent insect committed suicide in your glass, you can quietly ask the waiter to replace the device.
Simply place other inedible items on the edge of the plate.
Moreover, try to do everything so as not to spoil the appetite of those around you.
However, if you find not a fly or lint in a dish, but a rusty nail or a shaggy tail, then attract the attention of not only the waiter, but also the restaurant administrator.

Team "Gas!"

Perhaps the most unpleasant thing that can happen at the table is to accidentally burp loudly or release gas.
However, even in such a situation there is no need to do hara-kiri or drink potassium cyanide.
Try to hide a burp by coughing quickly - those around you won’t even understand what happened.
But there is no need to play up an attack of flatulence.
Try to pretend that nothing happened and mentally reassure yourself that holding back a natural impulse is harmful to your health. In the end, people may not even guess who exactly spoiled the air.

If you have to use it at the table
chopsticks

They were invented in China. At a time when our ancestors in Europe still ate with their hands, the Chinese were already training their finger dexterity with chopsticks.

Already in the 12th century BC. The rulers of the Shan dynasty used “elongated fingers” - chopsticks. Then they were made from valuable materials - jade, agate, ivory or silver.

Today they are usually made from bamboo, wood or plastic. The Chinese call chopsticks kuaizi, what does "accelerator" mean in translation? this is true, at least in skillful hands, because the Chinese eat quickly and do not hesitate to hold a bowl of rice close to their mouths in order to “speed up” the movement of the rice with chopsticks.

From China, chopsticks came to those countries where the historical influence of Chinese culture was great - to Japan, Korea and some others.

There are different sticks: short, about 25 cm, for eating from bowls or trays, and long, 35 cm, made of bamboo, for beating eggs or stirring sauces.

Eating with chopsticks is a matter of training: the lower stick is fixed between the bone of the index finger and the thumb, the upper one remains movable for grabbing food.

Learning to use chopsticks is not that big of a deal.
Look at the pictures, remember everything well and most importantly, practice more.

Chinese (kuaizi), also known as Japanese (hashi) chopsticks
Instructions for the user and subtleties of etiquette

Use chopsticks like this:
1. First, take one stick (at a distance of one third from the upper end) between the thumb and forefinger of the right hand. Hold the stick with the thumb and ring fingers so that the index, middle and thumb form a ring.
2. The second stick is taken, placing it parallel to the first, at a distance of 15 mm. When the middle finger straightens, the sticks move apart.
3. They bring the sticks together, bending the index finger, and pinch with the tips what they want to put into the mouth. In addition, if the piece is too large, you can use chopsticks to separate it, but only very carefully.
Since chopsticks are part of Japanese (and Chinese) culture and history, their use is surrounded by a lot of conventions and ceremonies. Countless rules and good table manners in Japan also cluster around chopsticks.

In general, the set of rules for using hashi is as follows:

# Do not knock on the table, plate or other objects with your chopsticks to call the waiter.
# Do not “draw” on the table with chopsticks, do not “wander” aimlessly around the food with chopsticks. Before you reach for your chopsticks, select a piece visually.
# Always take food from the top, do not poke around in the bowl with chopsticks in search of the best piece. If you touch food, then eat (the omnivorous Japanese simply will not understand how they can choose better pieces from the available food in the European manner - although this is their difficulty).
# Don't stick food on chopsticks - they're too dull for that.
# Do not shake the chopsticks to cool the piece (food may fly in unpredictable directions).
# Do not put your face in the bowl or bring it too close to your mouth and then use chopsticks to stuff food into your mouth. Do not compact food brought to it using chopsticks in your mouth.
# Do not lick chopsticks (or a spoon or fork). Don't just keep chopsticks in your mouth.
# When not using chopsticks, place them with the sharp ends to the left.
# Never pass food with chopsticks to another person.
# Never point or wave chopsticks in the air (just like a fork).
# Do not pull the plate towards you using chopsticks (after all, you don’t do this with a spoon?) - always pick it up with your hands.
# Place your chopsticks on the table before asking for more rice.
# Do not clasp two chopsticks in your fist: the Japanese perceive this gesture as threatening (but if you do this, no one will think that you are going to attack everyone).
# Never stick your chopsticks into the rice. This is prohibited among the Japanese - this is only served to the dead before a funeral (again, you are not Japanese, and no one will deeply condemn you; rather, this will be a reason for the manifestation of Japanese humor).
# Do not place chopsticks across the cup. After you have finished eating, place your chopsticks on the rack.

It’s not easy to use hashi if you’re not used to it, so in order to avoid inconvenience, don’t hesitate to ask the waiter in a Japanese (or Chinese) restaurant to show you how to use chopsticks correctly, and if it’s really hard, bring more familiar and rational utensils - a fork or a spoon (after all, there’s absolutely no need to try imitate all this national nonsense!)

In Korea they also use chopsticks, but there it is customary to eat rice with a spoon, especially in the presence of elders!

Chopsticks as a tool for eating have one undeniable advantage for those who are planning to lose weight - with the help of chopsticks, especially if you are not used to it, it is almost impossible to overeat, since this activity becomes boring and tiring much earlier than satiety sets in.

How to tie a tie

If it is not at all necessary to know how to eat with chopsticks, then everyone should be able to tie a tie with several different types of knots.
“Four” is the simplest and most frequently used knot.

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It is very easy to be considered a savage because of the way you wield a knife and fork. But for dinner parties, restaurants, or formal events, you'll probably want to stick with the classic style. There is a European (Continental) style and an American style. Which one do you prefer?

Steps

Part 1

European (continental) style

The fork should be located to the left of the plate and the knife to the right. If you have more than one fork: the outer one is used for salads, and the one closer to the plate is used for the main course. The main dish fork is larger than the salad fork.

• We will look at the issue of table setting at the end. For now, concentrate on how to hold the cutlery and learn how to use it! Use it correctly, of course.

1. To cut the food on your plate, take the knife in your right hand. The index finger should lie straight and positioned at the base of the blunt side of the knife blade. The remaining four fingers wrap around the handle. While the index finger is positioned on one side of the knife (the blunt side), the thumb grips the knife on the other side (the handle). The end of the knife handle should touch the base of your palm.

   • The knife is used the same in both styles. The rules are designed for right-handers in both styles. If you are left-handed, follow the instructions provided, taking into account your peculiarity (thus, you will hold the knife in your left hand and the fork in your right).

2. Hold the fork in your left hand. The teeth should point downwards. The index finger is straight and placed on the back of the fork, at its base, but not so close as to touch the food when using the appliance. Other fingers wrap around the handle.

   • This method is called the "hidden pen" method. This is because your hand hides the entire handle.

3. Bend your wrists so that your index fingers point down toward the plate. This way, the ends of the cutlery will also face down. Your elbows should be relaxed, not hanging in the air or awkwardly positioned.

   • While you eat, your elbows should be placed outside the table. But if you decide to take a break, you don’t have to stick to this rule.

4. Hold the food with a fork while applying pressure with your index finger. If you must use a knife, cut food at the base of the fork with a sawing motion. Dishes like pasta require a little effort, but cutting the meat may require some effort. Usually one or two incisions are made at a time.

   • Hold the fork with the tines curved towards you, with the knife further away from you than from the fork. You can hold it at an angle - just make sure you can see the knife so you know where you're cutting. You should see the knife behind the fork.

5. Using a fork, place a small piece of food into your mouth. The teeth should face down. The rear of the fork faces up.

   • Hold the fork in your left hand, even if you are right-handed. As you experiment, you will find that this method is more effective than the other.

   Part 2

   American style

   1. When cutting food, hold the fork in your left hand. Unlike the Continental style, in the American style the fork must be held like a handle. The handle should be held with the thumb and forefinger, the middle and thumb hold the base, and the index finger is located on top. And in this case the teeth are facing down.

      When you cut, hold the knife in your right hand. The arrangement of the fingers of the right hand is the same as in the previous version - the index finger along the base, the others clasp the handle.

      Cut off the food. Hold the piece with a fork (teeth facing down) as you carefully cut away the food using a sawing motion. The fork should be closer to you than to the knife. Cut off one or two pieces before continuing.

      Now switch hands. The most important difference between this style and the previous one: after you have cut a piece, place the knife on the edge of the plate (blade at 12 o'clock, handle at 3) and take the fork in your right hand. Turn the fork so that the teeth are facing up! Tadam.

      • This method was common in America when it first became America. This method was also used in Europe until a more effective approach was found. In the United States, such a jump has not occurred, although there are differences everywhere.

   2. If you are not cutting anything, hold the fork in your right hand (teeth facing up). If you are eating a dish that does not require cutting, keep the fork in your right hand at all times. The teeth can be pointing downwards if you want to cut a piece, but generally they are always facing up. However, remember that these rules should only be followed formally. This refers to the situation when, for example, the president is sitting opposite. Otherwise, don't worry about it.

      • Your cutlery should never touch the table. If you're only using a fork, make sure the knife rests on the edge of the plate. When you place your fork, place it on the edge of the plate with the tines in the center.

   Part 3

   Additional cutlery

   1. Understand how the table is set. 95% of the time you will only use a knife, fork and spoon. But there are times when other accessories are also found. Here are the possible options:

      If you decide to take a break, place your appliances in the “standby position.” There are two ways to tell the waiter that you haven't finished your meal yet:

      • European style: Place knife on fork on plate, fork on knife, tines facing down. They should look like an inverted "V".
      • American style: the knife is located at the top of the plate, the blade is at 12 o'clock, the handle is at 3 o'clock. The fork rests with its teeth facing up, at a slight angle away from your body.

   2. When you have finished eating, place your utensils in the “finished position.” This way the waiter will understand that the plate can be taken away (if he is aware). Again, there are two options:

      • European style: knife and fork parallel to each other, handles at 5 o'clock, blade and tines in the center of the plate (teeth facing down).
      • American style: just like the European one, only the tines of the fork are directed upward.

   3. Handle rice and other small foods. If you don't have a spoon, use a fork to scoop the food up rather than trying to spear it. Those who follow the American style prefer to rely solely on a fork (again, this is not very effective), while in the European style it is acceptable to use a knife blade or a piece of bread.

   4. To handle the pasta, twist it around a fork. If you have a spoon, use a fork to grab a few noodles and twirl them using the spoon as support. If the paste is too long, you can cut it with a knife. But before you take any drastic measures, try taking some noodles first. And make sure you have a tissue handy!

      • If you're having trouble with pasta, know that you're not alone. Even the most experienced pasta eaters get dirty. The problem is not even in the knife and fork, but in the suction of the spaghetti!
   • Don't worry. Nobody does this with 100% accuracy. And some dishes require special approaches. But as long as you know the basics, there is no need to go into details.