Servants and “Kitchen Etiquette”

“Did you ever find that scolding made an order more intelligible, or caused anything but broken dishes and ill-cooked dinners? Then try gentleness a little while; if that will not accomplish anything, send away your servant and try another.” – Especially around the holidays, always a stressful time, remember to be courteous to those in your employ.

Kitchen Etiquette

Humanity, says Bacon, is sooner won by courtesy than by real benefits. If one would make thorough and efficient servants out of raw material, it must be done by patience and long suffering. You say they are provokingly stupid; we will suppose they are; but if we have to deal with stupidity, let us use the means best adapted to it. Will intimidation succeed? 

Did you ever find that scolding made an order more intelligible, or caused anything but broken dishes and ill-cooked dinners? Then try gentleness a little while; if that will not accomplish anything, send away your servant and try another. You cannot afford to lose your temper; and a person on whom persistent kindness is thrown away can render you no intelligent or permanent service. 

We put it to the common sense of our readers, whether self-preservation, comfort, and duty, do not require of us a little more attention to kitchen etiquette?-Scribner's Monthly, 1875

🍽️Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette, is the Site Editor of the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia