How old were you when you finally figured out which fork should be used first from a formal placesetting? Do you know which bread plate is yours? What about cutting all your meat before eating — is that ok? No worries, Rachael Ray has your back (and without saying "Yum-o!").
Did you know Rachael Ray had a blog? Of course she does. She has EVOO, dog food, a magazine, a talk show, a cooking show... and of course a blog too. She recently talked about manners, and although her post is not a complete list of things you should check off to ensure proper etiquette, it has some great reminders.
Here are a few pointers to brush up on:
• Your napkin can go at the left or top of the plate as long as the fold faces in.
• Dessert and bread plates are to the left of the plate
• Water and wine glasses should be placed at the top on the right.
Were any of those new to you? If so, check out her full list to see if there's any more you should be storing away for those nights where fancy dinners are served. Although most people probably won't notice if you put your napkin in the wrong place, they might look at you funny if you eat from their bread plate!
• Read More: Table Manner Refresher from Rachael Ray
Related: Etiquette: Writing a Thank-You Note for Dinner
(Image: Flickr member Luigi Crespo Photography licensed for use by Creative Commons)
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Rachael Ray on table manners? Does anyone else find this somewhat silly? I haven't watched her cooking show or her talk show in a while, so maybe things have changed, but I remember her being more laid back about these sorts of things.
This is something Ina Garten should be writing about, no? Just make sure you use really good quality napkins.
Table etiquette from a person who can't even correctly pronounce "tapas"....
If America actually sat down to dinner together as a family, we just might know how to set a table and say "please" and "thank you". Good manners might become natural extensions of our character.
All you need to remember is "lumpy on the left, runny on the right."
I'm having trouble imagining her, busy woman that she is, at her keyboard and screen, researching and compiling all of these pointers.
The most important things to remember about table manners involve how to behave, not where to put the dishes. If a plate or knife is in the wrong place, it can always be moved. If someone uses the wrong dish, the other person can take a different dish. But if you're showing people the contents of your mouth as you babble on about your exploits, nothing in the world will remove the memory from your guests' heads.
What's with all the naysayers? Rachel Ray probably learned table manners from her parents, the same place most of us learned.
Plus didn't she used to work in food service? You learn a lot about where to set plates, remove them, etc., by serving in a restaurant.
I didn't see an answer to the cutting all the meat before you start question. Was it answered? I'm burning with curiosity.
@QChan - the answer is no, she answers it in the full blog entry
Watching Downton Abbey, I've learned that there are so many formal table manners that we've forgotten, or moved away from, like how to serve yourself from a plate being passed by staff, or that there are "rules" about when to talk to the people seated next to you (on one side during the first course, and on the other side during the next)
I can't take this concept seriously. Not from a woman who talks about food like it's a small child with sammies and yumm-o. The only manners I can manage when seeing her on tv is to quickly change the station before throwing the remote at her. I blame Oprah.
Just a quick note, the article is actually authored by "Plan B Mom", not Rachael on the blog.
Seems this post was more to watch commenters come out the woodwork riled up about Rachael Ray than it was table etiquette. Any post on this site about a Food network celebrichef seems just to irritate frequent commenters nowadays.
That said, I think most of us have no need to learn true table setting and etiquette. A dinner party is one thing but doing it with 7 pieces of cutlery and bread plates, etc doesn't happen much I think. Never, in my experience. I think that stuff died off years ago. I do know most of these things though and appreciate them from my parents taking us to nice restaurants as kids/ into our adults.
Rachel Ray comments aside, I wish more parents taught their kids these basic rules of table-setting etiquette. Thankfully, I grew up in a house where we ate family dinner every night, with the correct table settings, which my sister and I learned in preschool. My extended family also hosted "fancy" dinners at restaurants for special occasions, so we all learned how to behave and eat growing up.
When I started dating my husband in college and he brought me home for the first time, I was shocked that his family had zero knowledge about these subjects. I actually had to teach his mother how to set a table!! He now (mostly) knows better, after 10 years of marriage, but you can be sure I've been teaching our 4 kids the right way to do things since day one. It's simple and something every child should learn.
As someone's already mentioned, table 'manners' are pretty universal (not wolfing your food down, or turning your nose up at someone's offering). 'Etiquette' varies so much from one culture to the next that it seems silly to get hung up about what cutlery to use or where the napkin should be placed.
My parents kept to these rules and I picked them up naturally. I thought it was normal and everyone knew which fork to use and where to put the bread.
If I'm eating with someone or their family I really don't care if they want to use their salad fork for their entree. However, I'm always a bit embarrassed when I bring a friend or date to dine with my family and they've never been taught that you're supposed to wait for everyone to be served until you start eating.
Etiquette is one thing, obscure "rules" and superfluous tableware is another.
Heaven forbid I set a table with the bread plate or shrimp fork in the wrong position!