Dinner Etiquette

How to Behave at a Business Meal.

Formal manners are too important to muddle through. With that in mind, the Texas Exes Student Chapter offered a spring Etiquette Dinner led by career services director Jennifer Duncan.

“Companies have been known not to hire people who flub a meal,” Duncan says. “It reflects how you can represent the company with clients and colleagues.”

What’s mine? Not sure which bread plate or water glass is yours? Just remember: “Runny on the Right, Lumpy on the Left.” (That’s drinking glasses to the right, bread plate to the left.)

Where do I put all this? Put your jacket on the back of the chair, purse underneath the table, and phone off and out of sight.

Pass food clockwise around the table, accepting with your left hand and passing with your right. Salt and pepper are always passed together.

Bite-sized: Cut your food only enough for two bites at a time. Put a pat of butter on your bread plate and only butter a bite at a time, too.

Waiter, I’m finished: If you haven’t finished eating, make an “X” with your fork and knife on your plate. If you have finished, then place the knife and fork parallel on your plate.

Hazards of the table: If you accidentally get some bone or cannot chew what you’ve put in your mouth, pull it out the same way you put it in—with a fork, or with your fingers if it was a finger food.