Table Manners – Eating Etiquette

• Chew and swallow all the food in your mouth before taking more or taking a drink.
• Eat slowly and carefully and chew with your mouth closed.
• Finish what is in your mouth before talking.
• Never put so much food in your mouth that you cannot chew comfortably (take small bites).
• Sip your drinks, don’t gulp.
• Food should come to you, not you to the food.
• If the food or drink is too hot, wait for it to cool. Do not blow on it to cool it down.
• Do not slurp your soup or drink, either from the glass or from the spoon.
• Break the rolls/chapati with your fingers not with your knife. However a slice of bread can be cut with the knife into portions. A toast is cut with a knife into bite size pieces.
• Butter only the portion you have broken, not the whole slice or half a roll at one time.
• Always use a knife and fork at a formal meal.
• Cut your food in bite-sized pieces, a piece at a time. Do not cut all your food at once.
• Don’t lick the cutlery, especially spoon and knife.
• Don’t waive the cutlery around.
• Never use your fingers to push food onto your spoon or fork. Use the cutlery provided.
• Eat the food in the manner in which it is served: don’t mash the food on your plate.
• Do not scrape the plate. If some gravy or sauce is left, use a piece of bread to mop it up using your fork or just leave it.
• If eating with your hands, use the clean hand for serving yourself and for your glass.
• Don’t lick your fingers if you are eating an Indian meal.
• Don’t use your hands for halving a puri etc. from the serving plate.

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