10 Dining Etiquette Blunders to Avoid

According to European Protocols

Business lunches, dinners and social events are still a place where you are being observed. Being less than graceful during these events detracts from your overall image. Not understanding the finer aspects to social dining implies that you might be just as lapse in your work and other encounters. 

Your most powerful asset is your image! So let’s avoid some of the common dining etiquette blunders. These dining etiquette protocols can vary from country to country and even between the UK and USA. 

Here’s what you need to avoid when dining at business and social events in the UK and Europe:

1. Using the wrong cutlery for each course of the meal. Work from the outside in. The knife and fork furthest away from the centre plate placement will be for the first course. The final set being for the main course. You may have a starter followed by a salad and then the main course.
2. Using your dessert spoon without the dessert fork. The dessert fork should never be used to place food in your mouth. It is there to help you load your spoon and should always be used with the tines of the fork facing down. 
3. Sprinkling salt all over your food. It might be okay at the fish at chip takeaway but has no place at the dining table. Your salt should be placed on the side of the plate, though not the outer rim.
4. Spreading the whole bread roll and taking a bite. Once you have taken a bite food it should never be returned to the plate. To avoid this you should break the bread into a bite-sized piece and butter it. Do not divide the bread roll into chunks beforehand. It is discreetly done for each mouthful.
5. Repeatedly taking your butter knife to the main butter dish for each piece of bread. You should take a helping of butter from the butter dish with your butter knife and place it on the edge of your bread plate, which is the small plate to your left.
6. Wiping the sauce off your plate with a piece of bread.  A yummy temptation but never done in a social setting! It looks unsophisticated and greedy. Which reflects on your image as a whole suggesting this is your character. 
7. Blowing on hot food like soup to cool it down. Spreads germs and especially since Covid something to be aware of not to do at all costs. Simply wait till the food has cooled naturally a little. Engaging in conversation with your dinner guests will soon pass the time. It will only take a few seconds for the food to be at the right temperature.
8. Scooping the soup soon towards you from the soup bowl. This allows any soup that is going to dribble to do so onto your clothes before it reaches your mouth! Instead you should scoop up the soup starting from the edge nearest you and spoon towards the back of the bowl. You are allowed to tip your bowl toward the back, discreetly, for those last few delicious drops. This ensures that any drips actually back into the bowl and not onto your clothes!
9. Putting the whole soup spoon in your mouth. Sip silently from the side of the soup spoon. It’s quite a large spoon and would look unseemly to put the whole thing into your mouth.
10. Putting bread in your mouth with one hand whilst holding the soup spoon with the other. Place the soup spoon on the under-plate and use that had to eat the piece of bread.

These few tips should go a long way to help you project the right image. You will feel more comfortable being able to use that energy on building rapport with the other guests at your table and forging relationships. Whilst, of course, being at ease to actually enjoy the occasion!