Turning off cellphones at the beginning of a meal is proper etiquette.
Dinner etiquette: Pol Pot enjoyed luxurious meals while those suffering under his regime were allowed only water with a sprinkle of rice grains.
Dinner etiquette: Mussolini preferred to eat his meals at home with his wife, Rachele, and their five children.
Table Etiquette for Both Styles Once you begin the meal, your utensils should never touch the table, as no one enjoys the site of a soiled tablecloth.
"Drinking vodka or gin through the meal was the sign of a real drunk," says Letitia Baldrige, the etiquette expert, who was Jacqueline Kennedy's social secretary at the White House.
In a five-hour session that included a traditional Japanese meal, a trainer from Dean Foster Associates briefed them on cultural dining etiquette, business customs, socializing and developing a "global mind-set" when working with colleagues abroad and after returning home.
Touching on European and early American menus, table settings, customs and etiquette, it includes place settings for a three-course meal with menu contributions from Paris, London and Salem, Mass., along with a men-only after-dinner drinking course from Boston.
Some may be exhausted by this process by the end of the meal, but with practice you'll become a disciplined diner worthy of an etiquette trophy.
Etiquette manuals of the time were explicit — boys were to pay for meals, entertainment and transportation, and in return, girls were to provide well-groomed company, rapt attention and at least a certain amount of physical affection.
Although there are descriptions of dining etiquette on special occasions, less is known about the details of day-to-day meals of the elite or about the table manners of the common people and the destitute.
