as simple as observing a few key rules. You will need and a crash course in dining etiquette.

Step 1. As soon as you take your seat at the table, place your napkin in your lap and obey

the basic rules: Sit up straight, keep your elbows off the table, don’t begin eating

until everyone has been served, chew with your mouth closed, and silence your cell phone.

Step 2. Your bread plate is to your left. Place a chunk of butter on your plate—enough

so that you don’t have to keep dipping into the communal butter dish. Break off one bite-sized

piece of bread at a time, buttering it just before eating it. Step 3. Take the water glass

to the right of your plate. (Remember, the “DR” in “drink” stands for “drink

right.”) As courses arrive, use the utensil farthest from your plate first, and then work

your way in. If a spoon and fork are at the top of your plate, use them for dessert. Step

4. Eat soup by skimming your spoon along the surface of the broth, away from you. Then,

bring it to your lips and sip it, without slurping, from the side. Should you find it

excruciatingly hot, don't blow on it; simply wait for it to cool off. When you’re done,

rest the spoon on your plate. If the soup bowl came with a saucer, lay your spoon on

it. Never let a used utensil—including the handle—touch the table. Step 5. Cut your

salad if the leaves are too big. Just don’t hack up the entire salad at once. Step 6.

If someone asks for the salt or pepper, hand it over immediately—even if you need to

season your own food. Always hand over both, even if your dining companion only requests

one. Don’t season your food without tasting it first. And don’t over-season, especially

at a business meal: It looks childish. Step 7. Remove something from your mouth the same

way it came in. You can remove an olive pit with your fingers, but a bone or piece of

gristle should be daintily spit onto your fork and then placed on the edge of your plate.

Artichokes, crisp bacon, small fowl like quail and squab, strawberries, and shrimp served

with a tail may be eaten with your fingers. Step 8. When you’re finished eating, lay

your utensils parallel, the tops pointing at 11 o’clock. If you’re merely pausing,

cross your knife and fork on your plate like an “X” with the knife on the right. If

you excuse yourself from the table mid-meal, put your napkin on your chair. When you are

ready to leave, place it on the left of your dinner plate. Did you know In Japan, slurping

your soup is a sign of good manners—it shows your host that you are enjoying your food.