Dinner Etiquette

Cutlery is really easy to master. Even in the fanciest restaurants, they don't put much of it on the table at once, so if you are having many courses like you would with the 'tasting menus' that are so popular now, they will bring new cutlery for each course.

The general rule is to start from the outside and work your way in. Probably there will be a smaller fork and maybe a smaller knife for the starter course. I hate it when they only put out a dinner knife and I have to use that with my salad because the lettuce is in big pieces. So, sometimes there is a knife for the starter and sometimes there isn't. If there isn't, and you need one because the food isn't bite-sized, well then that's their mistake. Use the dinner knife if you need to and they will bring you a new one.

When you are finished with a course, you put your cutlery on the plate so it is angled like the hand of a clock pointing to the 5, with the handles just off of the edge of the plate. That signals
that you are finished.

Occasionally you will see some odd bits showing up. Lately, sauce spoons have become popular. They are flatter than the average spoon and have a little notch on one side. Use it to eat all of the yummy sauce! Remember when using any spoon, it is held parallel to the body and you scoop by moving the spoon away from you. It is OK to use your other hand to delicately lift the edge of the bowl that is closest to you to tilt the bowl away from you at a *slight* angle so you can get the soup into your spoon.

Tiny forks are generally for shellfish and will come with the plate or be set with that course.

The cool part is that being in Canada, you have your choice between the 'Continental' style (which I prefer) and the American style. Fork is in the left hand, tines pointing down and the knife is in the right hand. You spear your meat and cut off the bite-sized piece that your fork is in. Continental style: lift the fork to your mouth, with the tines still pointing down. Eat. Repeat.
American style: Put down the knife (at 5 o'clock, of course). Using your left hand that is holding the fork, put the fork down on the right side of the plate. Pick up the fork with your right hand,
then raise it to your mouth to eat. Lower it. Then you pick it up with your left hand, pick up the knife again with your right hand and start again. Technically, eating in the continental style in
the US is considered an 'affectation' unless you are foreign or went to school abroad. But it is not 'improper'.

Anyway, don't sweat the cutlery because even if you use the wrong one, no one is going to point and laugh or probably even notice. The waiter will just bring you more as you need it.