Dining Etiquette Class

Purchase a Lesson

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

Roosevelt Library Social Club: Transforming diners into polished communicators

The Roosevelt Library Social Club hosts dinners and teaches people of all ages about dining etiquette.

Types of Classes

Those under the age of 19 (Astute Youth) and those over the age of 19 (Interested Adults) often attend the same class because the curriculum is virtually the same.

FOR ASTUTE YOUTH - Those between the ages of 7 to 19.

• 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 10 people and a maximum of 18 people.

• Tuition: $55 per person
  

FOR INTERESTED ADULTS - Those over the age of 19.

• 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 10 people and a maximum of 18 people.

• Tuition: $95 per person.

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.

MENU

Oyster on the Half Shell

Oysters were a delicacy for the wealthy class during the Greek (13th-9th BCE)  and Roman empires (8th BCE-5th AD). Oysters were so important to the Greeks that the Greek became the first to cultivate oysters. The period between the 18th to the 19th century was known as the Golden Age of Oysters as the surge in oyster production made it extremely affordable for the working class in the US and in Europe. Because oysters were harvested at an unscaled level and became extremely cheap as a result, oysters quickly became very popular on the dining tables of all classes. Unlike most foods that have increased in consumption over time (such as beef or pork), the consumption of oysters decreased over time – the normal individual today eats fewer oysters than he would have a few centuries ago. Unbeknownst to many, oysters were a staple food for many civilizations such as the Romans, native Americans, and even New Yorkers back in the 1800s.

- 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

- OR -

Escargot Vol au Vent

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

❦

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

- OR -

Golden Mushroom Soup

Golden mushroom soup is a hearty soup made with beef broth, mushrooms, and seasonings, and gets its golden color from tomato paste. It's known for its robust flavor profile and culinary possibilities. Classic mushroom soup is believed to have originated in France in the 1500s as a creamy white sauce made with milk and white roux, known as béchamel sauce. However, it's thought to have developed much earlier, based on Italian salsa colla. The sauce is often called "glue sauce" because it binds dishes like pasta and lasagna together.

❦

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

- OR -

Bibb Lettuce Salad with Cherry, Chevre, Fennel and a Dijon Vinaigrette

John B. Bibb (1789-1884), a skilled horticulturist and former War of 1812 officer, developed Bibb lettuce in his garden in Frankfort, Kentucky in the 1860s. Bibb originally called the lettuce "limestone lettuce" because it became especially sweet when grown in alkaline soils. In the 1920s, Grenewein Greenhouse of Louisville introduced the lettuce to the public, and it quickly became a favorite among Kentuckians. Bibb lettuce is named after him and is also known as Boston Bibb.

❦

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

- OR -

Wagyu Boneless Short Ribs

Beef Short Ribs boast a lineage that spans centuries, with origins deeply rooted in traditional European butchery techniques. As settlers brought their culinary customs to American soil, Beef Short Ribs found a new home in Southern cuisine, celebrated for their robust flavor and tender texture. Wagyu Beef is an ancient breed of cow which originated in Japan. Its genetic origins can be traced back 35,000 years. Initially, the Wagyu was used as a draft animal for agricultural work and bred for physical stamina. Today’s Wagyu cattle are the product of crossing this native Japanese breed with a majority of imported black breeds from Great Britain, Korea, and Europe.

❦

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.

- OR -

Cake

The history of cake is actually quite interesting. The word “cake” is derived from the Old Norse word “kaka”, which means “flatbread”. Early cakes were actually more like what we would today consider biscuits or cookies. They were flat and dry, and often had fruit or nuts added to them for flavor. The first cakes were probably made in ancient Egypt. Yeast was used to making them light and fluffy. Honey was also often used as a sweetener. Nuts and spices were added for flavor and the cakes were sometimes iced with honey or syrup. The Roman Empire also had a long tradition of baking cakes. One of the most popular flavors was olive oil cake, which was flavored with rosemary and other herbs. Another popular flavor was plum cake, which was made with dried fruits and nuts. Cake became even more popular in the Middle Ages when sugar became more readily available. Sugar was expensive, so only the wealthy could afford to bake cakes regularly. Wedding cakes were especially elaborate, often being multi-tiered and adorned with expensive decorations such as gold leaf and sugar roses.