Dinner Table Mistakes.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXII, Issue XXI, 21 May 1904, Page 64

Dinner Table Mistakes.

AS SEEN BY A WAITER.

There in one subject about which even a despised waiter may be expected to Im» an authority—manners at the table. For many years I have waited at table in a well-known fashionable dining room, where elaborate dinners are frequently enjoyed by persons of distinct ion, and it has seemed astonishing to me that people of such excellent social position should make so many mistakes in table manners.

Trouble usually begins with the hors d’oeuvres. It is the commonest thing to see people eat sardines or anchovies with the knives and forks intended for the fish which will follow later. The result is that when the fish comes along, those guests will find themselves in trouble as to how to tackle it, and will remember, too late, that they should have used the small knife and fork for the first dish.

Olives puzzle many diners. These should be taken in the fingers from the dish, and eaten between courses. 1 have seen plenty of amateur diners-out place them on their plates, with whatever dish is proceeding, and struggle frantically to cut them into sections with a knife, with the result that the fruit often flies off into a neighbour's lap.

Of course, tipping one’s soup plate toward one is a well-known error, but it Is only too often committed. Tt should never be tipped one way or t he other. People are often puzzled by oysters. I have seen young ladies, evidently dining out for the first time, trying to rut the bivalve in half, with amusing results. It should, of course, be eaten whole, balanced on a fork. People often smother the ovster with cayenne

in a thoughtless moment, and nearly choke themselves. Chicken and salad is a great pitfail to the inexperienced. A dish is specially laid for the salad, and the diner should, in helping himself to it. place his portion on it. Very many ignore the side dish altogether, ami put the salad on to the same plate as the chicken. This is not a very serious offence, of course, but it shows that those guilty of it have not often dined out. Asparagus will trouble many. I have seen people rashly tackle it with a knife and fork, only to discover after doing so that their fellow diners are eating it with their fingers. What to do with the misued knife and fork then becomes a source of embarrassment to them, as they cannot lay it back again on the table, and should they leave it on the plate they will be short of a pair for the next course. You have no doubt heard stories about the finger bowl which is brought to you on a plate before dessert. I have often seen diners help themselves to fruit and place it inside the bowl. Others, not quite so inexperienced, have omitted to remove the bowl and stand it before them on the table. In such eases T promptly snatch it from their plate and remedy their error. A very familiar type of man is he who on seeing the waiter coming round with tile wines furtively empties his glass to have it refilled. Tic is evidently a novice at the gentle are of dining, or he would know that the waiter notices such things. Cheese floors many a guest, who forgets that, when out at any rate, it is unusual to place the knife in one’s mouth, no matter what one may do at homo. Choose should be cut and placed on the top of a piece of buttered roll or biscuit.

A waiter, of course, likes his services to be appreciated in the usual way, but he sets less value on spoken thanks than most people. The guest who studiously “thanks" a waiter for each course is evidently unused to “good society.” which ordains that the waiter’s services should be acknowledged in silence.