Basic Dining Etiquette - Using Utensils

hello I'm Nancy Mitchell with the etiquette advocate and we are talking about dining etiquette we're going to talk now about the placement and the use of utensils utensils are set in the order that they will be used according to the courses that are on the menu going from the outside in toward your main service plate spoons and knives are on the right forks are on the left this play setting would tell me that my first course is going to be soup and this is the grip that I would use on a spoon a spoon is held like a pencil we'll talk in a minute about eating a soup course there are two grips to remember about using a knife a knife can be used as a cutting implement where your index finger is placed on the joint between the handle of the knife and the blade of the knife and it is used to cut something like meat the entree vegetable a fish fork is the only exception to that rule if there is a fish knife in your place setting that knife is held like a pencil that grip is to ensure that you'll be able to remove bones skin whatever is part of your fish course there are two styles of dining there is the American style of dining and the European style of dining the United States is probably the only culture in the world where we switch our fork and knife after we've made a cut and we're trying to eat the food that we've cut to demonstrate in the United States we will hold our knife and fork in this fashion pivot our wrists make the cut place our knife to the top of our plate switch the fork to our right hand if we're right-handed and take the bite that we've just cut and we do this switching back and forth many many times throughout a meal European dining means that you are using the same grip for the tencel's you've made the one cut one cut at a time but you leave the knife in your right hand you pivot your left hand the food comes to your mouth your wrists are resting on the edge of the table you do not need to put your knife and fork down between bites the only time you do put them down is when you are going to take a drink of a beverage or you're going to have a bite of your bread let's talk for a minute about something called the silent service code if you are dining American fashion or European fashion there our message to the messages that you can send to the waitstaff that let them know where you are in the progress of your meal if I'm dining American fashion I am going to be cutting one bite at a time when I need to take a break to take a beverage or to leave the table for some reason I am going to place my knife and fork in such a way that there is a space between them they're on the right side of my plate I'm sending a message to the waitstaff that I am not finished with this course please don't clear it away if I'm dining American fashion and I am completely finished I'm going to line my knife and my fork up on my plate in what's called the 10:20 position if you envision your plate as the face of a clock the tines of the fork and the point of the knife are going to be pointing to ten o'clock on the face of the clock the handles are plate are pointing to 20 past the hour on the clock they're parallel they're close together they're sending this message to the waitstaff I'm completely finished with this course you may clear it now let's talk briefly about the European style of dining again the grip on the silverware is the same but the difference is I am NOT going to be putting my knife down and switching my fork back to my right hand between each and every bite I'm going to be making that cut I'm going to be pivoting my left hand to bring that bite to my mouth I have my elbows very close to my body I have my wrists resting on the edge of the table and I continue in this fashion until I need to take a sip of a beverage or I'll leave the table for some reason at that point I'm dining european-style I am going to crisscross my knife and my fork to send again this silent service code to the waitstaff that I'm not finished with this course please don't clear it away when I am completely finished after having dined in the European fashion again I will use this 10:20 position on the clock if you will and I will lay my knife in my fork parallel in that position with the tines of the fork down this indicates that I've been dining in the continental fashion we'll next talk about glassware you

Channel: MonkeySee

Views: 1,701,798

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Keywords: dining, etiquette, table, manners, proper, style, glass, knife, soup, serving, serve, plate, napkin, silent, code, clock, Food, drink, utensils, fork

Id: BRL8xVjXK_w

Length: 5min 18sec (318 seconds)

Published: Mon May 09 2011