Dining Etiquette for the Professional Networker

You are meeting a business contact for lunch for the first time. Your garments have been chosen with great care to establish a professional image. As you enter the restaurant, you discretely check your reflection in the glass of the door and take one last look at your shoes. You have prepared what you want to say, but have you given any thought to dining etiquette?

There is something about the dining table that makes it a strategic proving ground for prospective employees, possible suppliers of goods and services, and most importantly, prospective customers. The white tablecloth and its accompanying tableware can be a bewildering battlefield if you are not equipped with an accurate map. Dining etiquette can provide you with the strategies required to turn the table in your favour, allowing you to focus on connecting with prospects, rather than offending them with your lack of good manners.

Test your dinning protocol knowledge by either answering “true” or “false” to the following questions:

1. At a formal dinner in someone’s home, once everyone has been seated, you may begin eating.

2. You are hosting a business lunch and your guest orders an appetizer. Even though you are not too hungry, you should also order an appetizer.

3. When you have finished eating all the courses of a meal, you should place your napkin over your plate to indicate that you are done.

4. A red wine glass is smaller than a white wine glass.

5. A colleague invited you out for lunch. Your host should be ready to pay for the whole meal and tip.

Answers:

1. False. At a formal dinner, when the host picks up his/her fork to begin, you may take this as your cue to commence eating.

2. True. There is nothing worse than eating alone. Even if your appetite is small, when a guest orders an appetizer, you should do likewise in order to keep your guest company. The same holds true for dessert and drinks. However, if your guest orders an alcoholic drink and you prefer a soft drink, do not provide an explanation for your choice. Simply order what you want without hesitation.

3. False. Whether it is made of paper or cloth, never place your napkin over your plate. To signal that you have finished eating all of your courses, your dinner knife is placed on your plate to the right going diagonally with the sharp side down. Your fork is placed below it, parallel to the knife, with the tines up or down. Your napkin is casually folded and placed to the left of your plate.

4. False. The white wine glass is smaller than the red wine glass. White wine is most often served chilled and in a large glass will warm up too quickly. The surface area or the wine poured into a red wine glass is larger and allows the bouquet of the wine to be available more quickly, thus increasing the enjoyment of the wine.

5. True. Handling the bill can create a lot of tension and misunderstanding. Unless you are close friends who have been in the habit of sharing the cost of your meals together, the person who extends an invitation to dine out, should be prepared to pay for the bill. Not everyone is aware of this, so if you are the guest, offer to help with the cost, so as not to embarrass your host. If your host starts to divide the bill in half, follow through with your contribution. On the other hand, if you are the host and your guest offers to pay for their portion of the bill, enthusiastically say, “Thank you, however I invited you to lunch. Please allow me to pay.” It would be polite if the guest answered with, “Thank you. Lunch will be on me next time” and then made a note to contact the host within a few months to return the favour.



Dining Etiquette for the Professional Networker - To learn more about this author, visit Catherine Bell's Website.

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