February 22nd, 2010
Posted in 
Sometimes we forget our manners, it happens to the best of us -but your graduation dinner is not the time to falter. That’s why The Grad Mag is giving you the dot to dot in finishing your graduation meal in sheer style.
Dating back to when I was shipped off to my first children’s’ Birthday party I can still remember my Mum’s words to me before I left, the same words that come back to me at most social events – “don’t forget your manners.” And we mustn’t!
As we get older the party dress turns to a glamorous ball gown, the food becomes much tastier and the cutlery range more extensive. Who’d have believed we would evolve into our adult lives needing nine items of cutlery to finish just one meal – rather than the perfectly designed plastic spoon we enjoyed as kids? Anyway no use dwelling, time to get learning….
Let’s begin on the right side of your plate… There you will fine three items, the one closest to you is your service knife (to the rest of us, this is the dinner knife), followed by the fish then, then a soup spoon.
“But what do I butter my roll with?” I hear you cry. This takes us to the left. You will find a smaller plate there, with a perfectly placed butter knife over it. From the outside in will be the fish fork, dinner fork and salad fork.
If you’re anything like me, you’ll be wondering about what’s for dessert, even more cutlery! Not to worry, it’s just a cake fork and desert spoon up top. Not too difficult to get your head around – probably for the best considering the wine will probably be flowing quite nicely by now.
During dinner, if a lady leaves the table the men should stand as a mark of respect… but let’s not kid ourselves. However, an “excuse me” wouldn’t go a miss from anyone who feels the need to leave the dinner table at anytime.
If you find yourself being the only person at the dinner table who knows how to navigate their way around the cutlery battlefield, it’ll be worth it for the smug feeling you get and proof in itself that you really did deserve that First!
Tags: etiquette, kirsty booth, The Fun Stuff
