How to properly hold a spoon when eating soup. At the table. rules of etiquette. how to eat different foods. how to eat seafood. how to use chopsticks. Is it possible to exclude soup altogether

Everyone knows that knowing the rules of conduct at the table and following them is extremely important, since ethical behavior at the table helps us feel confident and comfortable.

The inability to use a knife and fork should not deprive us of the pleasure of spending time in a fine restaurant. Here are some basic rules of conduct in restaurants and fine society in general.

In a restaurant: menu selection, ordering, tips

Near the mirror in front of the entrance to the restaurant hall, you can straighten your hair, but you can’t comb your hair or make up - this is done in the ladies’ room. A man enters the room 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 is acceptable to arrange a meeting on the street if you do not like to go to a restaurant alone. But according to the rules, the one who invites comes earlier and waits at the table.

The man orders the dishes, he also chooses the wine. True, he can consult with you, ask about your wishes. A man communicates with the attendants - head waiter, waiter and sommelier.

If you invited a business partner to dinner, it is better to make and pay for the order in advance. They don't talk about business until the dishes and drinks are chosen.

The one who invited pays the bill, even if it's a business dinner and the invitee is a man.

If he is having lunch big company, everyone pays for himself, while the husband always pays for his wife.

Taboo. Knocking with a spoon, calling the waiter, is unacceptable. You can not demand a bill when a partner or partner finishes their coffee - even if you are in a hurry. It's not polite.

NB! In the restaurant hall, do not move a chair yourself - wait until your companion or head waiter does it. Stand still without bending your legs or looking back.

If you are in a restaurant with a company and invited a friend to join, introduce him to everyone present.

In a restaurant, it is customary to leave a tip in the amount of 10% of the order value in excess of the amount indicated on the bill. In Ukraine (in all high-class restaurants) and in Germany, the cost of service is included in the bill, and you can limit yourself to the amount indicated in it.

There is an unspoken rule: tips are left in banknotes. The account can be checked for "errors". And if you are unhappy with the service, you can leave no 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 the palm.

In no case should you put your elbows on the table; you can only put your wrists on the table for a short time. However, women are allowed to lean slightly on the table if absolutely necessary.

When you use cutlery, your hands should not touch the table at all. When eating, if you have one hand free, do not keep it under the table - this is bad form.

Sitting on a chair should always be straight, you can only lean slightly over the plate while eating. You need to sit at the table straight, but at the same time loose, so as not to give the impression that you are uncomfortable or uncomfortable.

A personal linen napkin should be placed on your knees. She should not wipe her lips and hands 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 have painted lips, they should only use paper napkins.

Naturally, in no case should you use any napkins at the table as a handkerchief. At the end of the meal, just put the napkin on the table.

Even if you are very hungry, you need to eat slowly, silently. Chew with your mouth closed and never slurp or blow on food to cool it down.

Don't talk over food.

Do not insist on choosing dishes for table neighbors.

Even if the dish was very tasty, you can not wipe the bottom of the plate with a piece of bread.

At a large table, all common dishes should have their own utensils, such as special forks, spoons or tweezers. With these devices, and not personal ones, you need to take and put food from common dishes on your plate. In no case do not take individual dishes from a common dish.

If the desired dish or, say, a salt shaker are at a great distance from you, do not reach for them across the entire table. Ask a neighbor or waiter to serve them to you.

If you need to temporarily interrupt the meal, in this case, put the knife and fork on the plate as they were held: the knife with the handle to the right, the fork with the handle to the left.

If you have completely completed the meal, arrange the cutlery as follows: the knife and fork lie side by side, parallel to each other, and the handles of both items look to the right. This means that you have completed dinner (lunch, breakfast, lunch), and the plate can be taken away.

If you are full, it is not necessary to finish the meal to the end. This rule also applies to alcoholic beverages.

Table etiquette

Bread is eaten in pieces, which are broken off from a large piece taken. It is not customary to bite off directly from this piece.

By the way, bread is taken by hand. In the same way, they take cake, cookies and fruits. Sugar in cubes is also taken by hand or with special tongs if they lie nearby.

In case you want to butter the bread, gradually break off small pieces, press them against the plate with your fingers and butter them. By the way, they take butter, pate with common cutlery from common dishes and put it on their plate, and only after that they spread it on bread. Caviar can be immediately spread on bread.

Buttered bread cannot 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. That is what it is intended for. Butter is also placed with a clean knife on the edge of the same plate. The same is done with caviar, but instead of a knife, a small spatula is used for caviar.

Sandwiches served before the feast are eaten with hands, and at the table - with a fork and knife.

Sometimes a buffet sandwich is multi-level and falls apart in the hands, does not fit in the mouth. Such a sandwich should be put on a plate and use a knife and fork (if there are no cutlery, use paper napkins).

Meat

Pork and lamb chops, fillets, steaks, liver and other similar dishes are eaten using a table knife with a fork: gradually cut off small pieces without cutting everything at once. In this case, the knife is in the right hand, and the fork is in the left. When cutting a dish, the fork must not be held perpendicular, but only at an angle to the plate.

Meatballs, cabbage rolls, omelettes, meatballs, and others soft meals, which do not involve the use of a knife, eat with a fork, which is held with the right hand, helping oneself with a knife. But it is not customary to cut dishes with a knife.

Remove the shish 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 so that the oil flows out, and cut into pieces. Attention: do not take it by the bone and papillot!

The bird is eaten with a knife and fork. In this case, it is not necessary to cut off all the bones completely. At home, you can afford to take chicken leg in 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 put the knife aside. According to the second - not for a minute should you let go of the knife from the right hand, from the left - the fork. The first rule is guided by the Americans. In the European sense, this method is far from elegant. Following the second recommendation, it will be correct to cut off a piece of meat, holding it with a fork. Mashed potatoes are placed on a cut piece of meat, pierced on a fork.

If meat is served with peas or other vegetables that are difficult to hold on a fork, then you can do this: holding the meat with a fork, cut off a piece, then turn the fork with this piece and put vegetables in it; vegetables can be put on cut off pieces of meat, as much as can be held.

When the meat is over, holding the fork already in your right hand, eat the peas (at the same time, do not put the peas with a fork, but pick them up like on a shoulder blade).

If the potatoes are served whole, they should not be crushed on a plate.

Salad served with meat on a separate plate should be eaten from the same plate, picking up a little in order with what lies on the main plate.

Fish

Fish is eaten with a fish utensil or with a fork and knife. In the case when there are no special devices, fish can be eaten with two table forks.

If a spatula and a fork were served to the fish, then the spatula is held in the right hand and the pieces are held, and the fork is held in the left and the bones are separated.

If two forks are served with the fish, one is used for eating and the other for separating the bones.

If one fork was served to the fish, then they take it in the right hand, and in the left - a piece of bread.

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. Set aside and proceed to the second part. After this dish is eaten, a fish skeleton should remain on the plate.

If a fish bone remains in the mouth, it must be quietly put with the tip of the tongue on the fork and set aside on the edge of the plate.

Fish cold dishes are eaten with snack utensils.

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

Lemon wedge served with cold fish, apply to the lips after the fish is eaten.

Oysters in restaurants are served already open. First, squeeze the lemon into the shell, then take the oyster in your left hand and separate the pulp with a fork. Eat it with a special device.

Crayfish are eaten with the hands. At the same time, there should be bowls of water at a moderate temperature on the table in order to wash hands after eating. Sliced ​​lemons are usually present in such water, less commonly used rose petals. Also, along with such vases, there must be clean napkins, cotton or paper, which should be removed immediately after the end of the meal.

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In a similar way, they also eat asparagus and tobacco 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. Claws are cut in the same way. Soft meat is removed with a special long fork with two prongs.

Shrimps are also eaten with the 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.

An appetizer, for example, if it is ham, should not be placed on a piece of bread.

If the sausage is served unpeeled, then each piece is cleaned on a 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 edge of the spoon is hit on the top. If the top does not bounce, you can remove it with your fingers. Eat an egg with a spoon.

Scrambled eggs can be eaten with a spoon or fork, depending on the consistency.

Sausages and sausages in a thin skin can be eaten without removing it.

All types of cheese are served after meat dishes. Take cheese in portions.

Spaghetti or straw pasta is very difficult to eat in a way that looks pretty. There are three ways:

The first method involves the use of a fork and a spoon. The spoon should be held in the left hand. Lower the edge of the spoon into the plate, wind the pasta on the fork in the recess of the spoon. Wrap a little pasta on a fork, cut off this portion with a spoon.

The second way: hold the fork like a knife prepared for cutting. Dip the fork into the thick pasta and lift them up, separating a small portion. Then again lower the fork with pasta into the plate, wrap them around the fork and quickly put them in your mouth.

The third way: chop pasta on a fork, wrap a portion of pasta on it (while holding the fork vertically). The basic rule is to pick up no more than 2-3 threads of pasta on the fork.

Salad is eaten with a fork. The knife is used to cut big chunks or lettuce leaves.

Green salad, as far as possible, do not cut with a knife. If it is served so 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 traces of sauce on the chin.

Pate can be taken with a knife, but as a rule, pate is eaten by separating small pieces with a fork. You can spread pate on bread only in the family circle.

Mustard and salt are taken in small spoons. Mustard is placed on the bottom of the plate on the right side.

Soups, broths

It is not customary to eat up soups without a trace; according to the rules, a small amount of soup remains on the plate. However, in the home circle, you can finish the soup by tilting the plate away from you.

Soups are eaten with a spoon, picking up from oneself and bringing a wide edge to the mouth.

A spoon is used if it is necessary to catch croutons floating in the soup, an egg, pieces of meat.

Also, a spoon is 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, do not stir it with a spoon. It is better to wait a while until it cools down.

Soup in a spoon should be enough so that it does not overflow from it.

The soup spoon is not put on the table, but after eating it is left in the bowl.

The broth should be eaten with a dessert spoon, bringing it to the mouth with a sharp end, slightly obliquely.

Broths, soups, which are served in cups, should be drunk as they drink coffee or tea, without using a spoon.

When you eat the first dish, do not sip, eat silently.

If there are dumplings, noodles or potatoes in the soup, they are crushed with the edge of a spoon.

The chicken in the broth is both the first and the second, so first they eat the broth with a spoon from the plate, and then the chicken pieces - already with the help of a fork and knife.

Fruit

Fruits served on the table are not tested for strength and are not selected.

Bananas are served unpeeled and eaten with the 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.

Grapefruit is served cut across, the middle is separated from the peel, but remains inside. It should be eaten with a spoon, you can sprinkle with powdered sugar.

It is customary to cut watermelons and melons into medium-sized slices, serve with a peel and eat with a fork and knife. Taking a piece from a common plate, it must be put on your plate with the skin down, after which a thin slice should be cut off with a fruit knife. and, freeing it from seeds, send it to your mouth on a fork.

Melon can be eaten with a spoon.

Mango should be cut in half on your own plate. It is eaten with a spoon, after removing the bone.

Pineapple must be peeled, cut across into thin slices and put on a plate. Pineapple is eaten with a fork and knife.

The first dish exists in a wide variety and each of them has its own specific features of use, but general rules no one has canceled yet.

A bit of history

As is often the case in cooking, many recipes arose by accident. Soup arose when there was not much food in the family and one piece of meat should have been enough for everyone. A piece of meat was placed in water and everything that was at hand was added. The first dish turned out to be rich, they could feed the whole family.

7 types of soups are popular in Russia: borsch, cabbage soup, chicken noodles, okroshka, hodgepodge, pickle, ear. But the world certainly knows more soups.

Soup is a reminder of childhood, of home. The first course is served at dinner only in a family format. But this dish has limitations, as a rule it is not served at festive events.

At home or at family events, soup is poured into a tureen and placed on the table so that it is convenient for everyone to reach it - this is if the hostess does not pour it herself.

How to eat soup

How to eat soup properly so as not to incur suspicion that you do not know good manners.

The first courses are usually served on the table in deep plates or cups. They put them on serving plates, it is on this plate that a spoon is placed after the end of the meal from the cup, and if the soup was in the bowl, then the spoon is left in it.

It is not recommended to blow on hot soup, it is likely to stain the tablecloth or neighbors, it is better to wait a while. It is important that the soup should be eaten silently with a spoon from right to left or away from you so as not to stain your clothes.

There are some differences in the nuances of bringing the spoon to your mouth. Some people say that it is more correct to bring the spoon to the mouth sideways, others eat from the sharp edge of the spoon. You can choose the option that is convenient for you, but putting it entirely in your mouth is considered indecent. Bring the spoon to your mouth, and not vice versa, during the meal, keep it parallel to the table.

Do not fill the spoon with soup to the brim on the way, you can spill some of it, stain the tablecloth. You need to hold the spoon between the thumb and forefinger, slightly resting on the middle and not in the fist. To prevent dripping from the spoon, lightly touch the edge of the plate. When there is not much soup left, it will be convenient to finish it by tilting the plate with your left hand a little away from you, but it would be more correct not to do this at all, it is better to leave some soup in the plate.

Broths and light soups should be properly served in a cup with one or two handles. They eat the broth from a cup with a dessert spoon, which is held in the right hand. Very often, a plate of bread is placed on the right side. You can read about how to eat bread according to etiquette.

Enjoy your meal!

See also:

How to eat soup

What good manners are: These are the sounds you don't make when you eat soup.

Bennett Cerf, humorist, publisher

Your image – professional and personal – is made up of the smallest details behavior for festive table, including also how you eat your soup. Liquid meals prepared by simmering meat, fish, fruits and/or vegetables with other flavoring ingredients added may be clear or contain small or even large pieces of meat, fish, vegetables or other foods. Soups are served hot or cold, although some might consider the phrase " cold soup» an oxymoron.

Soup plates are placed on a saucer, a plate or on that large dish that is already in front of each guest. The size and shape of the soup plate/bowl is determined by the texture and temperature of the soup, as well as the serving size. Thick soups with large pieces can be served in wide flat bowls, since they themselves retain heat well, but puree soup, so that it does not cool down, is best poured into deep bowls or narrow cups. Broths and consommé are served in small cups with two handles. Soup bowls with lids are used for serving soups that need to be kept very hot. The simplest and most informal soup bowl is the plain deep white bowl with no pattern. French onion soup is usually served in heat-resistant, thick-walled soup bowls.

Soup spoons are larger than teaspoons and deeper. Round soup spoons are commonly used for creamy soups; more versatile oval (sometimes dessert) ones are suitable for almost any soup. The purpose of some silver spoons can only be determined by size: for broth, for cream soup, for gumbo.

How to eat soup

Using the edge of the spoon, scoop some of the soup near the edge of the plate.

The spoon should be no more than three-quarters full, move the spoon away from you to the far edge of the plate.

Drink the contents of the spoon from its side edge. You can tilt the plate away from you to pick up the soup from the bottom. When you're done, put the spoon on your plate. If the soup was served in a cup, the spoon should be placed on the saucer or on the bottom plate.

Etiquette for different types of soups

If you eat traditional French onion soup, break first the top golden brown from melted cheese and toast and catch a piece of cheese in a spoon. Press the edge of the spoon against the side of the bowl to tear off the cheese, and eat this piece of cheese and bread. Continue eating the soup along with the cheese chunks, biting down on the dangling cheese strands so that they fall into the spoon.

If you are served broth or consommé, you can either use a small spoon or drink from a cup, holding it with one or two hands. You don't need to combine both methods at the same time. If the soup is served with a lid, remove it and place it on the side of your bottom plate. Put it back in place before the bowl is removed from the table.

What to do with crackers

Oyster crackers are placed on the bottom plate to add to the soup as needed. Larger crackers, such as salted ones, should be placed on a pie plate and eaten with fingers, or crumbled into soup. The croutons, which are shared in a common serving bowl, can be poured into the soup using the small serving spoon provided.

Sour cream and other sauces

Using the spoon provided or your clean soup spoon, spoon the sauce into your bowl of soup. If you shared a spoon, put it back on the plate under the gravy boat. You need to add sauces before you are going to start eating.

What Not to Do

Blow on hot soup.

Slurping, making squelching sounds.

Putting too much on a spoon.

Put the whole spoon in your mouth.

Hold bread in one hand and a spoon in the other.

Raise the soup bowl to drink the last drops of soup.

Put the dirty spoon directly on the tablecloth.

Confuse the broth with the soup of the same name, which is prepared from meat and various vegetables in Haiti.

Soup is the heartiest dish of any cuisine. It exudes calm confidence, sadness is forgotten from its aroma, after a tiring day it gives cheerfulness, setting up for a warm conversation, like a tea party or an evening cocktail.

Louis P. de Gouy. "The Big Book of Soups"

How crustaceans are eaten Lobsters, crabs, crayfish, shrimp Lobsters (lobsters) The real pity is not the poor person, but the unfortunate loser who has never tasted lobster. Unknown author This marine crustacean with huge claws is equally famous for

How they eat bone marrow I went into the forests because I wanted to live with feeling, with sense, with constellation. I wanted to drink every last drop of marrow out of life. Henry David Thoreau Bone marrow is a fatty vascular tissue that fills most of the