I think your food choices would offend anyone who appreciates food.
Table Manners...WTF?
- Thread starter RoJoHen
- Start date
I think your food choices would offend anyone who appreciates food.
If you rest it next to your plate (on the right side, hollow side facing up), you are going to continue. If you rest it in the plate (again at 4 o'clock position) you're finished. As a general rule, you shouldn't put the spoon aside until you are finished. I can't atm think of an occasion that would make it necessary to do so, unless it is to help your neighbour - for instance an elderly person or a child - or pass some item to another guest, but the latter wouldn't be done in first class restaurants or at formal dinners - that's what the waiters are there for.
The same goes for the dessert spoon or fork as well, btw. If you use both or a dessert fork and knife, you rest each at their own side of the plate during a refill or you cross them in your plate when you take a break.
(I suppose you guessed it - I have a posh upbringing
)
NebulaClassGuy
Lieutenant Commander
Unfortunately for them, I could care less what they think. I eat what I want.
I eat pizza with a fork and a knife. I even eat burgers and fries with a fork and a knife when I order that somewhere that is not a fast food.
No, I just weep for your cholesterol level and for depriving yourself of a pleasure in life.
Slurp your ramen up in Japan; sip your consomme in the West.
You'd think parents would teach their kids the basics of good table manners, but sadly these days, too many parents don't have a clue themselves.
There are two functions of good conventional manners:
1) to make life easier and more pleasant for both for yourself and those around you.
2) as social markers, as etiquette actually has its own fashion cycle as it is essentially a codified convention. Historically, if someone sufficiently important broke the convention, a new convention was established, hence proper etiquette evolved. Social wannabes might ape the older etiquette, making themselves inadvertant pariahs.
Nowadays, as a large percentage of the population lacks any desire to improve themselves in terms of their manners, its use as #2 is limited to truly gross (in both senses of the word) breaches. The corollary is that etiquette has paradoxically become more fixed as the fashion component has faded (in truth, this ossification began around the middle of the last century, as broadly rising living standards eroded traditional social class privileges).
Instead, we retain those elements of #1 which were present around the time of the last major codification of standards around the Victorian and Edwardian eras.
If you go to a restaurant with trained staff that know the traditional rules, the waiters fade into the background. Food & drink appears and disappears with very few words because the staff note these little things like cutlery positions. It's a much nicer experience (at least to my way of thinking/dining out) than those restaurants where you're constantly asked "are you done with that?"; "did you enjoy your meal?", "can I top up your glass", etc, etc, etc, all constantly interrupting your dinner conversation. Unfortunately, the fashion these days is that many otherwise great (in terms of food) restaurants now want their staff to try to be "friendly" or "unintimidating" instead of just giving me and my dining companions an excellent meal in pleasant surroundings.
Fine dining restaurants can actually be the worst offenders in this regard. Over the past 5-10 years, they've acquired a particularly annoying tendency to try to explain your food to you as if you might want to want to look up the recipe for your next appearance on Masterchef. Just give me what I've ordered without a spiel about the mysterious magic your chef has done to with organically-reared, locally-sourced ingredients. Let my taste buds decide!
The only instance, that I can remember having had the problem, was decades ago in a restaurant in a Mediterranean country, where I had left the table to go help my kid sister with something elsewhere and came back to half my soup having disappeared
I had a rather pedestrian (I suppose the English term is: 'middle class') upbringing -but I believe table manners are considered more important in traditional 'slow-food'-countries(I suppose you guessed it - I have a posh upbringing
Oh my! Why didn't I think of it myself? Yes, I'm sure that slow food vs fast food has definitely something to do with it.
Guess I need more sleep - my brain doesn't work as it used to.
Guess I need more sleep - my brain doesn't work as it used to.
I HATE (it is the right word, and one I don't use lightly) those places.
It's like being served by robots: I've even been at a place where someone came to our table and asked if we had enjoyed our meal -before we'd had a chance to order
In defence of certain 'finer' places, it sometimes is necessary to explain how certain dishes and items are eaten in order to achieve the desired effect. -This is of course most true when it comes to 'modernist' food, of course.Fine dining restaurants can actually be the worst offenders in this regard. Over the past 5-10 years, they've acquired a particularly annoying tendency to try to explain your food to you as if you might want to want to look up the recipe for your next appearance on Masterchef. Just give me what I've ordered without a spiel about the mysterious magic your chef has done to with organically-reared, locally-sourced ingredients. Let my taste buds decide!
Yeah, I've been to some of these places too, and I still think that if the food requires a set of instructions to eat correctly, it's not a good dish. I don't mind it if you order the degustation menu, as in that case you're pretty much saying "I'm here to be impressed by your chefitude, so please tell me all about it". But if you order from the regular a la carte, dishes should not need a road map or footnotes.
If you go to a restaurant with trained staff that know the traditional rules, the waiters fade into the background. Food & drink appears and disappears with very few words because the staff note these little things like cutlery positions. It's a much nicer experience (at least to my way of thinking/dining out) than those restaurants where you're constantly asked "are you done with that?"; "did you enjoy your meal?", "can I top up your glass", etc, etc, etc, all constantly interrupting your dinner conversation. Unfortunately, the fashion these days is that many otherwise great (in terms of food) restaurants now want their staff to try to be "friendly" or "unintimidating" instead of just giving me and my dining companions an excellent meal in pleasant surroundings.
Fine dining restaurants can actually be the worst offenders in this regard. Over the past 5-10 years, they've acquired a particularly annoying tendency to try to explain your food to you as if you might want to want to look up the recipe for your next appearance on Masterchef. Just give me what I've ordered without a spiel about the mysterious magic your chef has done to with organically-reared, locally-sourced ingredients. Let my taste buds decide!
Even our fanciest restaurants around here don't come close to "fine dining" as you have described it here. I don't even know where I would go to encounter such service.
And honestly, I would be annoyed with it. My preferred restaurant setting is a noisy sports bar where I can get beer, wings, and some kind of queso dip.
If a server is bored or new to the job, they will often come by your table too often. One of the hardest things I had to learn as a server was that sometimes it's totally okay to leave your tables alone. At the same time, however, you want to be visible to your tables whenever possible, just in case they need something.
I don't agree with you there - most, if not all, food needs special instructions; we're not born with the knowledge to eat things like, say, artichokes or how to peel shrimp (sure, both are 'finger food') or which sauce/dip goes with which part of the meal.
^ imo there a world of difference between a basic food-eating skill like peeling a shrimp, and being told to eat the elements of a dish in a certain order for maximum gustatory effect. I really dislike the latter approach. For me, a dish should be an ensemble, not a series of courses within itself.
It may be a peculiarly British disease; I've yet to encounter it in good restaurants abroad, though I travel a lot less than I used to. trekkiedane's sympathetic comment suggests it is not wholly confined to the bounds of this sceptred isle, unfortuately...
Funnily enough, I'd be down with that too (though make mine ribs & sauce rather than wings & queso dip). All I want is the service that's traditionally appropriate to the setting, and that cuts both ways!
If you go to a restaurant with trained staff that know the traditional rules, the waiters fade into the background. Food & drink appears and disappears with very few words because the staff note these little things like cutlery positions. It's a much nicer experience (at least to my way of thinking/dining out) than those restaurants where you're constantly asked "are you done with that?"; "did you enjoy your meal?", "can I top up your glass", etc, etc, etc, all constantly interrupting your dinner conversation. Unfortunately, the fashion these days is that many otherwise great (in terms of food) restaurants now want their staff to try to be "friendly" or "unintimidating" instead of just giving me and my dining companions an excellent meal in pleasant surroundings.
Fine dining restaurants can actually be the worst offenders in this regard. Over the past 5-10 years, they've acquired a particularly annoying tendency to try to explain your food to you as if you might want to want to look up the recipe for your next appearance on Masterchef. Just give me what I've ordered without a spiel about the mysterious magic your chef has done to with organically-reared, locally-sourced ingredients. Let my taste buds decide!
Even our fanciest restaurants around here don't come close to "fine dining" as you have described it here. I don't even know where I would go to encounter such service.
It may be a peculiarly British disease; I've yet to encounter it in good restaurants abroad, though I travel a lot less than I used to. trekkiedane's sympathetic comment suggests it is not wholly confined to the bounds of this sceptred isle, unfortuately...
And honestly, I would be annoyed with it. My preferred restaurant setting is a noisy sports bar where I can get beer, wings, and some kind of queso dip.
Funnily enough, I'd be down with that too (though make mine ribs & sauce rather than wings & queso dip). All I want is the service that's traditionally appropriate to the setting, and that cuts both ways!
I could totally get down on some ribs, too. Basically, meat. I like meat.
The true cause of the American Revolution. Fuck your monarchy and its restrictive table settings!
That's a remarkable change in your compatriots eating habits. Is there any particular reason that Danish consumption has gone up so dramatically, even compared to other first world countries?
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