Dining Etiquette Class

Types of Classes

FOR ASTUTE YOUTH - Grade school students and teenagers (5 to 18 years of age) who have an interest in dining etiquette. The classes are designed for ages 5 to 8 years of age, 9 to 12 years of age, and 13 to 17 years of age.

• Commitment: one three hour session including lunch or dinner.

• Curriculum: dining etiquette including the universal knife rule, removing food from mouth, holding cutlery, placement of the napkin and many other particularities that may have gone by the wayside.

• Class Size: minimum of six people; maximum of twenty people.

• Tuition: $35 per person.

  
  

FOR INTERESTED ADULTS - A refresher covering the basic and finer points of dining etiquette.

• Commitment: one three hour session including lunch or dinner.

• Curriculum: dining etiquette including the universal knife rule, removing food from mouth, holding cutlery, placement of the napkin and many other particularities that may have gone by the wayside.

• Class Size: minimum of six people; maximum of twenty people.

• Tuition: $95 per person.

Purchase Lessons

Please email rsvp@rooseveltlibrary.com or call 210-862-1062 to schedule a Dining Etiquette Class.

SYLLABUS

THE THREE MOST IMPORTANT RULES: (1) When to sit. (2) When to place your napkin. (3) How to hold the knife.

GLASSWARE SPECIFICS: Identifying types of glassware. What to do with your beverage or appetizer plate at the end of a reception. How to hold a stemmed glass. Toasting etiquette.

TECHNOLOGY AT THE TABLE: What to do with your cell phone or smart watch while dining.

YOUR PURSE & HAT: Where to place your purse, handbag, or clutch when dining. When to wear a hat indoors.

YOUR NAPKIN: When to place the napkin in your lap. What to do with the napkin if you need to leave the table while dining. Where to place your napkin at the end of dinner. What not to do with your napkin.

STARTING, KEEPING PACE, & FINISHING A COURSE: Knowing when it is acceptable to start eating. How to know which cutlery to use for each course. Keeping pace with your fellow diners.

REMOVING ITEMS FROM YOUR MOUTH: How to remove bones, seeds, and fruit pits from your mouth while dining. What to do if you find hair or other foreign objects in your food. Where to put "discards" on your plate.

HOW TO EAT SOUP: The correct method to eat soup. When to rest cutlery on a service plate.

THE KNIFE AND FORK: How to hold your knife and fork in the continental and American styles of dining whether you are right or left handed. The importance of preparing the "morsel" to be able to lift the fork to your mount and not bring your mouth down to the fork. Indicating with your cutlery that you are pausing or when you are finished eating a course.

BREAD AT THE TABLE: How to identify the location of your bread plate. How to butter and eat bread. How to slice bread when a baguette or loaf is provided for the table.

SALT AND PEPPER: When to salt and pepper your food. How to pass the salt and pepper.

PERSONAL GROOMING: Where personal grooming is appropriate when dining.

UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR IN WESTERN CULTURES: Generally unacceptable behavior while dining in Western cultures (countries with historical ties to a European country). Knowing when it is appropriate to take off your jacket.

DESSERT CUTLERY: Knowing which cutlery to use to eat dessert.

EATING WITH YOUR HANDS: Rules for eating with your hands when dining in a traditional setting or in India, Africa and the Middle East.

STANDING AT THE TABLE: When to stand at the dining table.

THE THANK YOU NOTE: When to send a thank you note.

Your Classroom

The historic 1929 Roosevelt Library is your classroom. The building features several dining/class rooms and a chef’s kitchen featuring a $100,000 French La Cornue range. The Grand Hall features a working fireplace and a twenty foot dining table.

Sample Menu

Escargot in Puff Pastry

The Romans considered escargots an elite food, as noted in the writings of Pliny the Elder. The Roman breeder Quintus Fulvius Lippinus is considered the "father" of heliciculture, or at least, the first written reference to snail farms. Lippinus established his study center in the Tuscan city of Tarquinia to feasibly domesticate various animals, such as dormouse and wild boar, among many others. However, he was best known for his enormous snails, of which he had several species brought from Illyria to Africa. With a fatty diet he devised to fatten them, he obtained large quantities of snails, which he then marketed in Rome. His snails set the trend among the Roman upper class, and the practice became popular.Wikipedia

- OR -

Oyster Rockefeller

Oysters Rockefeller was created in 1889 at the New Orleans restaurant Antoine's by Jules Alciatore, son of founder Antoine Alciatore.[3] Jules developed the dish due to a shortage of escargot, substituting the locally available oysters.The dish was named "oysters Rockefeller" after John D. Rockefeller, the then-wealthiest American, for its extreme richness.[3] It consists of oysters on the half-shell topped with a green sauce and bread crumbs, then baked or broiled .Wikipedia

❦

Lobster Bisque

What Makes a Soup a Bisque? A bisque is a smooth, creamy French style of soup, traditionally made from crustaceans like lobster, crab or crayfish. It should include a stock made from the shells, a large amount of cream, and a thickening agent made from either finely-ground shells or rice. The meat is typically cooked and used as a topping. Bisque is a type of soup, so all bisque is soup, but not all soups are bisque. If you make bisque the old-fashioned way, the key difference is the way in which cream is used in the dish. Traditional recipes used much more cream than regular soups - even more than cream soups like cream of mushroom or cream of tomato - and the cream was added much earlier in the cooking process, to be used as a thickening agent, where regular soup recipes added it at the very end. Fine Dining Lovers, November 19, 2021.

- OR -

Beef Consommé

Consommé, also known as the king of broths, is a rich, clear, and flavorful clarified broth that can be made from any animal protein. Usually served as a course in itself, this traditional preparation dates back to the Middle Ages and was usually eaten by the wealthy, who could afford the ingredients. The liquid, not any of the solids, is the only component of the dish that's eaten. This recipe makes a delectable and silky bowl of succulent, clarified beef broth that can be enjoyed hot as a light supper or as a small serving during a cold winter afternoon. Rebecca Franklin

❦

Greek Salad with Black Olives

Greek salad or horiatiki salad is a popular salad in Greek cuisine generally made with pieces of tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, feta cheese (usually served as a slice on top of the other ingredients), and olives (typically Kalamata olives) and dressed with salt, Greek oregano, and olive oil. Common additions include green bell pepper slices or caper berries (especially on the Dodecanese islands). Greek salad is often imagined as a farmer's breakfast or lunch, as its ingredients resemble those that a Greek farmer might have on hand. Outside Greece, "Greek salad" may be a lettuce salad with Greek-inspired ingredients, even though the original dish is distinguished by the absence of lettuce. Meanwhile, the variant without lettuce may be called horiatiki, 'peasant salad', or 'village salad'. In an American-style Greek salad, lettuce, tomatoes, feta, and olives are the most standard elements, but cucumbers, peperoncini (pickled hot peppers), bell peppers, onions, radishes, dolmades, and anchovies/sardines are common. Wikipedia

❦

Lemongrass-Ginger Sorbet

What Is a Palate Cleanser? A palate cleanser is any food or beverage served between courses to prepare diners for the next course. Palate cleansers often have neutral flavors that serve as a baseline for more complex flavors, and they’re designed to improve digestion, stimulate the appetite, or remove any lingering aftertastes. Smaller than a full dish, palate cleansers often consist of just a few mouthfuls. The right palate cleanser can help reset your sensory perception, preparing your taste buds to notice subtle flavor differences. MasterClass, June 7, 2021

❦

Chicken Ballotine

A ballotine (from French balle, 'package') is traditionally a de-boned thigh and/or leg part of the chicken, duck or other poultry stuffed with forcemeat and other ingredients.[1] It is tied to hold its shape and sometimes stitched up with a trussing needle. A ballotine is cooked by roasting, braising or poaching. A ballotine is often shaped like a sausage or re-formed to look like the leg, often with a cleaned piece of bone left in the end.

- OR -

Chicken Cordon Bleu

Cordon bleu is a very popular international dish with Swiss origins. In its most basic form, it consists of a meat cutlet that is filled with a thin slice of ham and cheese (usually Gruyère), breaded, and either deep-fried in hot oil, shallow fried in a pan, or baked in an oven. The dish is usually prepared with two meat scallops, one on top of the other with the ham and cheese sandwiched in between. The first mention of cordon bleu is found in a cookbook from 1949. Today, there are numerous varieties of the dish such as veal cordon bleu, chicken cordon bleu, and cordon bleu served with mushroom sauce. TasteAtlas

❦

Crème Brûlée

Just like with most renowned desserts, everyone claims they were the “first” to create the classic crème brûlée. France, Spain, and England all claim it originated there. There was a similar burned-sugar dessert back in 15th century England, and Spain has its own version that dates all the way back to medieval times. However, the first printed recipe for the crème brûlée is from the 1691 edition of the French cookbook “Le Cuisinier Royal et Bourgeois” by Francois Massialot, a cook at the Palace of Versailles. French for “burnt cream,” crème brûlée is one of those desserts that seems simple to make, but in reality, requires quite a bit of finesse. The staple ingredients are cream, sugar, vanilla, and egg yolk. The best part? The crackly, caramelized top, thanks to either a kitchen torch or an oven broiler. One rap with the back of your spoon and it breaks perfectly, giving you the unbelievable dichotomy of creamy and crunchy, warm and chill.