Eating Food - Manners and Etiquette

3/14/2014 Eating Food - Manners and Etiquette

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by Mandy Barrow

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Eating Etiquette

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E a t i n g E t i q u e t t eLearn about Christmas in England from the children who live in Britain Christmas traditions why do what we do at chrsitmas time

W h a t s h o u l d I d o o r n o t d o w h e n I a me a t i n g i n B r i t a i n ?

The British generally pay a lot of attention to good table

manners. Even young children are expected to eat properly with

knife and fork.

We eat most of our food with cutlery. The foods we don't eat

with a knife, fork or spoon include sandwiches, crisps, corn on

the cob, and fruit.

T h i n g s y o u s h o u l d d o :

If you cannot eat a certain type of food or have some special

needs, tell your host several days before the dinner party.

If you are a guest, it is polite to wait until your host starts

eating or indicates you should do so. It shows consideration.

Always chew and swallow all the food in your mouth before

taking more or taking a drink.

Always say thank you when served something. It shows

appreciation.

You may eat chicken and pizza with your fingers if you are at a

barbecue, finger buffet or very informal setting. Otherwise

always use a knife and fork.

When eating rolls, break off a piece of bread before buttering.

Eating it whole looks tacky.

On formal dining occasions it is good manners to take some

butter from the butter dish with your bread knife and put it on

your side plate (for the roll). Then butter pieces of the roll using

this butter. This prevents the butter in the dish getting full of

bread crumbs as it is passed around.

In a restaurant, it is normal to pay for your food by putting your

money on the plate the bill comes on.

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When you have finished

eating, and to let others

know that you have, place

your knife and folk

together, with the prongs

(tines) on the fork facingupwards, on your plate.

"I was taught never to place ones fork tines facingupwards, but to do the exact opposite, to place the fork

with the tines cruved and only the tips sitting on the

plate. This was because if you had anything of an acid

nature i.e vinegaret dressing etc it would tarnish the

fork, so as little as possible of the fork would be left

placed on the plate to avoid this.

If you also so consider that silverware would have taken

time to polish by staff a tarnishing of the silver would

take them longer to clean off (if indeed it had not been

damaged beyond repair) thus staff would be tied up

cleaning these items not getting on with other tasks

that were needing to be done.

Worse it could be these days ones self doing the

cleaning not a job wanted by many these days I dare

say. Acidity can damage even modern made cutlery

tarnishing it beyond repair and with the cost of good

cutlery the best way to keep it getting spoit is to place

the knife and fork together fork tines facing down so

only the tips of the fork are upon the plate."Advice from a visitor to our website

T h i n g s y o u s h o u l d n o t d o :

Never lick or put your knife in your mouth.

It is impolite to start eating before everyone has been served

unless your host says that you don't need to wait.

Never chew with your mouth open. No one wants to see food

being chewed or hearing it being chomped on.

It is impolite to have your elbows on the table while you are

eating.

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Don't reach over someone's plate for something, ask for the item

to be passed.

Never talk with food in your mouth.

It is impolite to put too much food in your mouth.

Never use your fingers to push food onto your spoon or fork.

It is impolite to slurp your food or eat noisily.

Never blow your nose on a napkin (serviette). Napkins are for

dabbing your lips and only for that.

Never take food from your neighbours plate.

Never pick food out of your teeth with your fingernails.

T h i n g s t h a t a r e o k t o d o :

It is ok to pour your own drink when eating with other people,

but it is more polite to offer pouring drinks to the people sitting

on either side of you.

It is ok to put milk and sugar in your tea and coffee or to drink

them both without either.

I a m n o t u s e d t o e a t i n g w i t h ak n i f e a n d f o r k . W h a t d o I n e e d t ok n o w ?

We eat continental style, with fork in the left hand and the knife

in the right (or the other way round if you are left handed). Atthe top of your plate will be a dessert spoon and dessert fork.

If you are eating at a formal dinner party, you will come acrossmany knives and forks. Start with the utensils on the outside

and work your way inward with each subsequent course

H o w t o e a t w i t h a k n i f e a n d f o r ki n E n g l a n d

The fork is held in the left hand and the knife in the right.

If you have a knife in one hand, it is wrong to have a fork in theother with the prongs (tines) pointed up.

Hold your knife with the handle in your palm and your folk in the

other hand with the prongs pointing downwards.

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How to hold a fork How to hold a knife

When eating in formal situations, rest the fork and knife on the

plate between mouthfuls, or for a break for conversation.

If you put your knife down, you can turn your fork over. It'scorrect to change hands when you do this, too, so if you are

right handed you would switch and eat with the fork in your righthand.

If it is your sole eatinginstrument, the fork should be

held with the handle betweenthe index finger and the thumb

and resting on the side of yourmiddle finger.

H o w t o e a t S o u p

When eating soup, tip the bowl away from you and scoop thesoup up with your spoon.

Soup should always be taken (without slurping of course) fromthe side of the spoon, and not from the 'end' as in most of the

rest of Europe.

H o w t o e a t p e a s

To be very polite, peas should be crushed onto the fork - a forkwith the prongs pointing down. The best way is to have load the

fork with something to which they will stick, such as potato or a

soft vegetable that squashes easily onto the fork. It'ssometimes easier to put down your knife and then switch your

fork to the other hand, so you can shovel the peas againstsomething else on the plate, thus ensuring they end up on your

fork.

The fork should not be used as a scoop but held so that the

points of the tines face

H o w t o e a t p u d d i n g ( d e s s e r t s )

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To eat dessert, break the dessert with the spoon, one bite at atime. Push the food with the fork (optional) into the spoon. Eat

from the spoon. (Fork in left hand; spoon in right.)

H o w t o u s e a n a p k i n o r s e r v i e t t e

The golden rule is that a napkin should never be used to blowyour nose on. This is a definite no-no. Napkins should be placed

across the lap - tucking them into your clothing may beconsidered 'common'.

W h a t d o y o u s a y o r d o i f y o u ' v ea c c i d e n t a l l y t a k e n t o o m u c h f o o da n d y o u c a n n o t p o s s i b l y e a t i ta l l ?

Say:

"I'm sorry, but it seems that 'my eyes are bigger than my

stomach'.

or

"I'm sorry. It was so delicious but I am full".

The main thing is not to offend your host

O t h e r p a g e s o n o u r w e b s i t e a b o u t f o o d

o r m a n n e r s a n d e t i q u e t t e

For information about the food we eat, visit our food pages.

For more information about manners and etiquette:

Visit Social Customs and Dos and Don'ts in Britain

Questions (or statements) sent to us by visitors to ourwebsite

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© Copyright - please read

All the materials on these pagesare free for homework andclassroom use only. You maynot redistribute, sell or placethe content of this page on anyother website or blog withoutwritten permission from theMandy Barrow.www.mandybarrow.com

© Copyright Mandy Barrow 2013

Mandy is the creator of the Woodlands Resources section of the Woodlands Juniorwebsite.

The two websites projectbritain.com and primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk are the newhomes for the Woodlands Resources.

Mandy left Woodlands in 2003 to work in Kent schools as an ICT Consulatant. She now teaches computers at The Granville School and St. John's Primary

School in Sevenoaks Kent.

Woodlands Junior Homework Help new website

© Copyright Mandy Barrow 2013

© Copyright - please read

3/14/2014 Eating Food - Manners and Etiquette

http://projectbritain.com/behaviourfood.html 7/7

© Copyright - please read All the materials on these pages are free for homeworkand classroom use only. You may not redistribute, sell orplace the content of this page on any other website orblog without written permission from the Mandy Barrow.

Mandy is the creator of the Woodlands Resources section of the Woodlands Junior website. The two websites projectbritain.com and primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk are the new homes for the

Woodlands Resources.

Mandy left Woodlands in 2003 to work in Kent schools as an ICT Consulatant. She now teaches computers at The Granville School and St. John's Primary School in Sevenoaks Kent.

Follow Mandy on Twitter

Woodlands Homework Help new website

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