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Page 14
At a formal dinner the first course is on the table when the guests enter
the dining-room. It consists of oysters, a canape, a fruit cocktail,
grapefruit or something else of the same kind. Oysters on the half-shell
are served bedded in crushed ice in a soup plate. This is placed on the
service plate. A cocktail is served in a cocktail glass which is placed
on a doily-covered plate which in turn is placed on the service plate.
The silver for the first course may be on the table beside the soup spoon
or it may be served with the course.
The waiter removes the first course entirely before the soup is placed.
He stands at the left of each guest and removes the plates with his left
hand. The soup in soup plates (not in a tureen) is placed on the service
plates and when this course is over service plates as well as soup plates
are removed and the entree is served. If the plates for it are empty
they are placed with the right hand but if the entree is already on them
they are placed with the left. If empty plates are supplied the waiter
passes the entree on a platter held on a folded napkin on his left hand,
using his right hand to help balance it. Each guest serves himself.
At the conclusion of this course the plates are removed and empty warm
plates placed for the meat course. The meat should be carved before it
is brought to the table and after the waiter has served each person he
serves the vegetables. If there is only one waiter it is more convenient
to have the vegetables placed on the table in large vegetable dishes from
which each guest serves himself. After the vegetables have gone around
once they are removed but they may be passed once or twice again before
the conclusion of the meal.
The salad follows. It may be served on each plate (and this is surely
the more artistic way) or it may be served from a platter. After the
salad the table is cleared of all plates that have been in use, of salt
and pepper shakers or cellars and is crumbed before the dessert is
brought in.
Usually the dessert which is nearly always ice-cream or something else
frozen is served in individual dishes. Small cakes are passed with it.
Other desserts besides ice-cream are served in much the same way.
When the dessert has been removed, finger-bowls half filled with water
and placed on a small doily-covered plate are set before each person.
Coffee may be served at the table but it is more often served in the
drawing-room.
USE OF THE NAPKIN
What can be more unsightly than a napkin tucked carefully in the top of
one's waistcoat? And still, how often one sees it done among men who
believe that they are impressively well-bred! The proper way to use a
napkin, whether it is at a formal dinner, or in a restaurant, is to
unfold it only half, leaving the center fold as it is, and lay it across
the knees. It may be used constantly during the meal, whenever the guest
finds need for it, but it must never be completely unfolded.
When rising from the table, the napkin is placed as it is on the table.
It is never folded again into its original form, as that would be an
assumption on the part of the guest that the hostess would use it again
before laundering. A reprehensible habit is to drop the napkin
carelessly into the finger-bowl, or over the coffee cup. It should be
laid on the table, at the right of the finger-bowl.
THE SPOON AT THE DINNER TABLE
Spoons are used when eating grapefruit and other fruits served with
cream. Jellies, puddings, custards, porridges, preserves and boiled eggs
are always eaten with spoons. Also, of course, soup, bouillon, coffee
and tea. In the case of the three latter beverages, however; the spoon
is used only to stir them once or twice and to taste them to see that
they are of the desired temperature. It is never allowed to stand in the
cup while the beverage is being drunk. Nor is it permissible to draw up
a spoonful of soup or coffee and blow upon it; one must wait until it is
sufficiently cooled of itself. In taking soup, the correct way to use
the spoon is to dip it with an outward motion instead of drawing it
towards one. The soup is then imbibed from the side, not the end.
THE FORK AND KNIFE
In using the fork and knife, one can display a pleasing grace, or just
the opposite--awkward clumsiness. It depends entirely upon how well one
knows and follows the correct rules. The first rule to be remembered is
that a knife is never used for any other purpose than cutting food. It
is unforgiveable to use a knife to convey food to the mouth--
unforgiveable and vulgar. The knife is held in the right hand and
the fork in the left. When the desired morsel of food is cut, the knife
is laid aside temporarily and the fork is shifted to the right hand.
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