What do I need three forks for?

By: Amy Saramago
Posted In: News

Dinner time for a typical college student consists of eating some good old cafeteria food at Miley, meaning eating foods with your hand, leaving crumbs on the table, the possibility of at least one person at the table spilling a drink or it spewing from their mouth mid laugh and if you’re really polite you might use a napkin. Unfortunately after fours years of this relaxed dining style, many students tend to forget that in the real world these habits would be frowned upon and deemed unacceptable.

On Oct. 22, Salve Regina’s Offices of Alumni and Development hosted the seventh Annual Senior Etiquette Dinner with masters of ceremonies Dr. Traci Warrington and Dr. Michael Brady at Ochre Court. The night was open to all Salve seniors with the purpose to show the students the proper ways to behave when in a business setting or lunch meeting in future careers. Salve faculty, staff, and alumni attend the dinner and offered students personal experiences, tips, and coaching during dinner. Each table had at least one “coach” to help the students cope with various challenges and proper etiquette.

The night started with a cocktail reception where students enjoyed cocktails and networking with faculty, staff, and alumni before dinner started. Here are a few of the cocktail etiquette tips students were taught during the night:

 Keep a cocktail napkin with you to wipe your hands so they are clean for greeting and shaking hands with people.

 Hold the drink in the left hand so shaking hands is easy; wear name tags on the right side so when shaking hands, your name is still visible to the other person.

 Shrimp cocktails should be dipped in sauce only once, and the tails should not be put back on the tray, but wrapped in napkin and disposed in a nearby wastebasket to restroom wastebasket.

Then dinner was a test of students ability with the menu of food purposely tricky for public consumption. The menu consisted of French onion soup with bread, salad, chicken parmesan with pasta, and then a flan like desert. Dinner chatter also gave coaches time to answer questions varying from what employers look for in resumes, interviews, networking tips and help with jobs in certain fields.

As one can imagine, dinner became a battlefield for students. Limbs were still intact, but some dignity was lost. The lessons learned on the battlefield will help win the professional war later on in life.

Some of the dinner etiquette guidelines students learned are as followed:

 Napkins should be picked up after everyone is seated and placed on your lap. If you temporarily leave, the napkin should be placed on your seat letting servers know you are not finished eating. If you place it on the table it means you are done eating and leaving.

 Wipe your mouth often, especially before taking a sip of your drink so you don’t leave unsightly marks on the glass.

 With silverware, always remember start from the outside and work inward with utensils and the ones in front of the plate are used for desert. Also remember ‘BMW’ meaning your bread plate is to the left, meal in the middle, and your water cup or drink is placed to the left of you.

 The person nearest the rolls or salad dressing, offers them to the person to the left first, helps him or herself first and then passes it to the right.

 Break the bread roll with your fingers.

 For soup, use a soupspoon spooning it away from you towards center of soup.

 When cutting meat, you may cut up to two small pieces at a time, eat those pieces then cut two more.

 Do not put personal items like purse, glove, glasses, etc. on table. Also do not put dirty utensils onto the table.

With all these tips, you are ready to step out of the college cafeteria and ready to tackle dinner interviews, lunch meetings, and all sorts of formal situations like meeting your significant other’s parents. Remember one last thing.stay classy Salve Regina.