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Chapter 30

USING THE CORRECT FORK

Sometimes, when you come to the table—especially at the holidays, or in a fancy restaurant—you will find a lot of forks set out in front of you. You may want to ask, “Hey, what’s the deal with all the forks? Is somebody just trying to get me to mess up?”

Relax. Forks are no big deal. Most of the time, there will be only two of them. You use one of them (the smaller one) to eat your salad, and you use the other one to eat the rest of your meal. If there are a lot more forks on the table, just do what the adults do. Saying, “Hey, I’m just a kid,” is not your best defense. If you don’t want to be treated like a kid, try not to act like one.

Unless the person who set the table has got it wrong, the forks will always be set in the same way: The salad fork will be on the outside. The dinner fork will be on the inside, next to the plate.

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That makes sense, because you eat your salad first, so your salad fork is the first one you pick up. When it comes to choosing the correct fork, always start with the one on the outside. When you’re finished with that fork, use the next one. If you start on the outside and work your way in, you’ll always be safe.

When you are finished with your salad, you put your salad fork on your salad plate, and leave it there.

When you are finished with your dinner, you put your dinner fork on the plate, alongside your knife.

When it comes time for dessert, you will probably be offered a clean fork with which to eat it—especially if you’re eating in a restaurant. If you’re eating at somebody else’s house, however, and if they don’t offer you a new fork, just watch the adults at the table and do what they do.

YOU DO

Put your fork on your plate if you must set it down. While you are eating, you put it on your plate.

YOU DON’T

Put your fork back on the table after you have used it.

Why

A dirty fork gets food on the table or the tablecloth.

YOU DO

Be cool if you accidentally start eating your salad with your dinner fork.

YOU DON’T

Freak out and make a big deal about it. Most likely, no one will notice.

Why

Everybody makes mistakes. People will have more respect for you if you keep your cool when you make a mistake—especially a little one, like picking up the wrong fork.

And finally, just one more time, to make sure you’ve got it right: When it comes to using your forks, you start from the outside and work your way in toward your plate. Stick with that one rule, and you’ll be doing the right thing the whole way through dinner.

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If a gentleman drops his fork on the floor, he asks for a new one to replace it.

If a gentleman comes to the table and finds that his silverware has been wrapped in a napkin, he unrolls the napkin and sets the forks in their correct places.