Food is art and elegance

Place a dinner plate in the center of the setting and lay forks to the left of the plate and knives and spoons to the right. Place your cutlery in the order that it will be used starting from the outside. Knife blades should be facing towards the plate and fork prongs facing upwards.

Forks always go on the left, in order of use from the outside in; in other words, the salad fork is to the left of the dinner fork. A soup spoon, if needed, sits to the right of the knife. A butter knife, if needed, gets its own placement atop a small plate above the forks.

The basics are large and small knives, large and small forks, teaspoons, dessert (pudding) spoons and forks, and tablespoons. There may be small blunt knives for butter, fish knives, soup spoons and extra small spoons for coffee, or for salt and mustard. Some people have different shaped spoons for soup and pudding, but cutlery design is not standard. If the dessert spoons are very small, then traditionally tablespoons are used for the soup.

Jam spoons or dessert spoons, not teaspoons, should be used for jam or honey (and the jars and spoons placed on small plates). Teaspoons are also for tea and coffee, or for eating grapefruit or boiled eggs, for which you may sometimes find a type with a more pointed shape. Dessert cutlery is placed on top of the plate. Normally, they are placed when desserts are served.    

Always eat puddings with a spoon and fork (both should always be laid); the spoon should be a dessert spoon. Ice cream may be eaten with a teaspoon, or a long teaspoon if served in a tall glass. Sorbet, served between courses, is eaten with a teaspoon

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