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| In France, olives and potato chips are finger foods only if they are taken at a buffet meal. If they are served at dinner, they must be eaten with a fork. Here we consider potato chips finger food unless they become gravy soaked on a dinner plate; then they must be eaten with a fork. Olives which are served in a condiment dish, are taken and eaten with the fingers. However, if olives are part of a salad, they are eaten with a fork, for they will have become covered with dressing.— Photo of two, Gilded Age, Saratoga Chip servers, from “What Have We Here?: The Etiquette and Essentials of Lives Once Lived, from the Georgian Era through the Gilded Age and Beyond...” |
The French magazine, “Réalités” which has a fairly small but avid group of subscribers in this country (it’s published in French and English) has just had an amusing and instructive article called, “The French Have a Word For It — L’Etiquette.” French etiquette, it develops, is much more complex than our own and in many ways differs completely from ours. For example, in France it is bad form to take carnations to your hostess, for some people - in France at least - think carnations are bad luck. This seems strange, for some of the very best French perfumes have the strong, spicy odor of carnations.
In France a butler never says, “Dinner is served;” he says, instead, “Madame is served.” Also, in France no woman has her chair pushed in for her unless there is a butler. It is his responsibility, and his alone, to perform this act for a woman guest. Here, of course, the gentleman on the lady’s right performs this courtesy for her.
In France it is improper for a guest to ask for the bread, but vital for the hostess to remember to offer it.
THE FRENCH consider it rude for people not to clean up everything on their plates, but portions therefore are small. In this country it used to be considered good manners (in Victorian days) for gentle people to leave a little of every thing on their plates - evidently to indicate that they were not greedy. Today we serve modest portions, and it is no longer considered necessary to “leave a little” just for the sake of courtesy, but if we do not wish to eat everything on our plates, we don't have to.
In France, it is a faux pas to cut lettuce. However, here we cut lettuce if cutting is necessary, otherwise we eat it with a fork. Crisp iceberg lettuce, for example, served in a quarter head with Russian dressing can hardly be eaten with a fork alone.
In France, olives and potato chips are finger foods only if they are taken at a buffet meal. If they are served at dinner, they must be eaten with a fork. Here we consider potato chips finger food unless they become gravy soaked on a dinner plate; then they must be eaten with a fork. Olives which are served in a condiment dish, are taken and eaten with the fingers. However, if olives are part of a salad, they are eaten with a fork, for they will have become covered with dressing.
In France, you don't eat a banana with your fingers, although you peel it with them and then you cut it into manageable pieces, with your fruit knife and eat them with the fork.
Asparagus etiquette has undergone a delicate change in France. You eat the tender tips with your fork, after which you now may take the stalk in your fingers. In this country, we do it both ways either eat all of the asparagus with a fork or take up the whole stalk with the fingers. The Dutch and the Germans are more forthright in the eating of asparagus; they pick the stalks up in the fingers even when the asparagus has a sauce. This is quite correct here, but must be done with finesse.—Amy Vanderbilt for Santa Barbara News Press, 1960
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