Dining With Etiquette

Etiquette for Particular Foods

CANDY

• Take one piece at a time.
• Remove the paper frill with the candy. Never leave behind evidence of how much you have taken.
• Take the one you touched.

RAW VEGETABLES, CHIPS & DIP

• No “double dipping”!
• Never return a particular vegetable or chip from which you have taken a bite to the dip container.

ECLAIRS

• These are NOT finger foods. They should be eaten from a plate with a fork.

CHERRIES & BERRIES

• Grasp stem with hand and pull while securing berry with teeth. Remove pit from cherries with hand.

STEWED FRUITS WITH SEEDS OR PITS

• The rule is that if you put it into your mouth with a spoon, the inedible comes out on the spoon. The skill is to get the pit clean while it is in your mouth, so what comes out has no food attached to it. Put the pits on the plate under the dish in which the fruit was served.

OLIVES WITH SEEDS

• Remember: In with your hands, you must take it out with your hand. Lay the seed on the edge of your plate.

CLUB SANDWICHES

• Do not attempt to eat the club sandwich with a fork.
• Remove the frill pick, lay it on the edge of your plate and eat the sandwich in sections. Save your fork for eating whatever has dropped out of the sandwich when it is eaten.

SHISH KABOB

• If served on a metal skewer for a meal, hold skewer by one end in the left hand, while the right hand holding a fork slides the meat and vegetables onto the dinner plate.
• Shish Kabob served from a wooden skewer are of a hors d’oeurve type only and should be eaten one ingredient at a time by holding the item between the teeth and pulling skewer out. This is considered a finger food and should not be eaten as such.

SPAGHETTI

• The fork accompanied by a spoon is to be used when eating spaghetti by twirling a small portion of spaghetti on the frok using the spoon to guide/push it on.

STEAK SAUCES

• Use a ladle, put the sauce directly on the steak.

FRESH FRUIT AT FORMAL/SEMI-FORMAL DINNERS

• Stab with a fork, quarter, cut out pit/core, and cut into bite-sized pieces, eat with a fork.
• Bananas: Strip peels entirely, cut slices and eat with fork.
• Berries: Use a spoon
• Grapes: Eaten by hand, pits quietly transferred to hand and then to plate.

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