When you dine with (pick one) a potential employer/boss/love interest/betrothed/betrothed’s parental unit, you don’t want to look like an escapee from bad reality TV. A well-set table is a roadmap to what’s being served and when. Author Lizzie Post, spokesperson for The Emily Post Institute, and great-great-granddaughter of the grand dame of American etiquette, tells us how to digest the properly set table.
The basics
Work the outside in:
“Your first course will use the utensils farthest to the right and farthest to the left. You will know that your salad is going to be served AFTER dinner if there is a small fork closer to your plate than the larger fork.”
Which glass is yours?
The B-D Rule: Under the table, make the A-OK symbol with both your hands. “You’ll have a B on the left side and a D on the right side. B is bread, D is drinks.” The glass to your right is yours. The bread plate to the left is yours.
Scenario #1
BASIC PLACE SETTING
Plate: Middle
Knife: Right of plate, blade faces plate
Spoon: Right of knife
Fork: Left of plate
Glass: Above knife
Napkin: Left of fork or on the plate
Optional: Bread and butter plate and knife
Scenario #2
FORMAL PLACE SETTING
Utensils used depend on the menu; they are arranged according to their order of use so a diner can work from the outside in.
For this menu:
(a) Appetizer: Shellfish
(b) 1st Course: Soup
(c) Fish Course
(d) Entrée
(e) Salad
Limits: If anymore than three of any utensil is needed, it will come with the course (oyster forks don’t count as a fork).
Dessert: Utensils will be brought out before or with the dessert.
