Table manners of today: How to make a good impression at the table
One does not speak with a full mouth and does not spit on the tablecloth. So far everything is clear. But what else is hip or frowned upon, which behaviors are outdated and which ones are current? At the very latest, if you have a business lunch in your professional life, it is important to be safe in dealing with food, cutlery and counterpart. Table manners up to date? a listing without an index finger, please:
Before the meal
When inviting you always look for the host ? he does everything first.
You do not sit down until you are asked to do so or the host sits down. Also, you wait with the drink, until the host raises the glass. There's no way to bring out a toast before the invitee speaks. If the food comes, you start only when all were served at the table or have served. The exception is hot food, where hosts or table neighbors specifically request one to start.
Where to go with the purse, my ladies? The rule says that only food belongs on the table. So hang your handbag on the back of the chair or put it on the chair behind you. On the floor belong only shopping bags! An exception can be made with clutches and even smaller evening handbags. These are also usually placed behind the chair or on the lap under the napkin. But if she is in danger of falling down, can she be placed on the table next to his place of cover? if there is enough space.
The mobile has not lost anything on the table. It should be muted.
Make up refresh at the table? Under no circumstance. Some say lipstick is allowed, some say 'no'. To be on the safe side, go to the washrooms. Since lipstick edges on glasses are frowned upon anyway, you can postpone the tightening to the end of the meal.
During the meal
The cutlery, If a menu is set several times, you start with the utmost cutlery and work your way in during the course of the meal. Ever cutlery: Used cutlery must not touch the table. If you only take a short break, you put the knife and fork crossed, fork back up, position twenty to four. When you're done with the gear, cutlery parallel to twenty past four. This signals the service in the restaurant that can be cleared. By the way, you leave the plate yourself, please do not push towards the center of the table, so you have more space.
The napkin belongs on the lap for the duration of the meal, preferably once folded (if it is big enough). Dabbing your mouth (do not wipe!) You are always in the "inner"? Zone off, then the napkin looks appetizing for table neighbors. If you have to leave the table for a moment or after the meal is over, the napkin will come loose on the left next to the place setting.
Glasses with stem have this for you to handle them there. This avoids fingerprints on the glass and faster heating of cold drinks. Briefly dab the lips with the napkin before drinking, so that no ugly fat edges remain on the glass.
Attitude, my dears: Upright, not flung into the chair. The hands belong on the table, the elbows never. The fork / spoon goes to the mouth, not the other way around. Seasoning is allowed. But pretty rude.
Tips for the table talk: It is best to take only very small appetizers at once in the mouth, then you have the same fast empty again, if you are addressed. The cutlery is there to eat and not to underline what has been said!
Single, critical food
Bread and butter in advance: You do not smear a casserole and bite, but pluck (and do not cut) a bite-sized piece of bread, put some butter on it and put it into the mouth as a whole.
Soup: Do not sip (is en vogue in China) nor blow. If it is too hot, then gently stir. Soup is spooned? in which direction does not matter. Overseas you spoon away from yourself, with us rather to yourself. The spoon goes first with the tip in our mouth, in England with the broadside. Spoiled is the tilting of the plate to spoon the last leftovers. If clear broths are served in soup bowls, is it permitted, by the way, according to Knigge, to drink the leftovers? However, it is advisable to orient oneself more to the behavior of the round table.
salad will never be cut, at most folded. Anyway, according to the Mannenpäpsten salad should only eat with a fork, one-handed folding is almost impossible. So if the restaurant or the host so ruthless, the salad leaves to serve in original size, you can ever use the knife as a folding aid.
Finger food? There are hardly any meals that are eaten by hand. Even chicken drumsticks please with knife and fork. In the hand you can take artichokes, oysters, canapés, shrimps, mussels, lobster, spareribs and quails. Mussels are sneaked with the help of the first mussel shell.Real finger food can be recognized when finger bowls are placed on the table for cleaning.
The problem bones and coresIf you have olive pits or fish bones in your mouth, then discreetly (possibly behind the napkin) you place them on the fork and place them on the edge of the plate.
spaghetti are not cut small, but rolled up with a fork. In Germany you can use the spoon to help.
emergencies
Sneezing, coughing, embarrassment: If one of the sneezing or a coughing fits, then you turn first off the table and takes his handkerchief to help. A quick snooze is okay, for an extensive nose cleaning is certainly the better place in front of the door. Speaking of "health": Officially, it is no longer said because it points to the weakness of the opposite, on the contrary, the sneeze should apologize briefly. This etiquette is very slow. Therefore: health!
Buy now 
The new big Knigge: Right manners private and at work 14,99 ?
