Each country has it's own rules and customs, and the dinner table tends to be where they are most visible. Dining in polite company can be intimidating for a visitor abroad.
In France it is important to have both hands visible while eating. This means that if you are sipping soup, for example, holding a spoon in one hand, then the idle hand should be poised, the wrist resting lightly on the edge of the table. Basically you're proving that you haven't got a weapon on your knees beneath the table!
The cheeseboard is served after the main dish and before dessert. At a dinner between friends it is passed once around the table, generally each person steadies the platter while their neighbour cuts pieces from the cheese of their choice, and this is where it can get sticky.
What is the right way to cut each cheese? ... !!
To know how to cut the cheese you have to identify which sort of cheese it is. Is it a slice cut from a large hard cheese like an emmenthal, is it an individual soft creamy camembert, a soft round goats cheese, or a chunk of creamy roquefort?
I can't remember where I found this clever diagram, but it demonstrates precisely how each sort of cheese should be served.
Of course here, since the French love to talk about the food before them, while the cheese is enjoyed there will also be much discussion about where each cheese comes from, which is the best wine to have with it, where to find the best cheese locally etc etc ... happy days!
Posts
Hello!
ReplyDeleteI thought to put both hands on the table is just having good table manners and common everywhere... Intersting to read that it is supposed to be a French thing.
By the way: Putting fork and spoon down like this doesn't seem familiar to me either... Is it American? I am just wondering.
Your variety of cheese looks wonderful!
Have a nice day,
Birgit
Neat post.
ReplyDelete- The Tablescaper
A weapon, or not groping the man/woman next to you...
ReplyDeleteThank you! Coincidentally, we we were just discussing cheese boards last night and you have set us uneducated Americans right. Lovely photos.
ReplyDeleteLovely timing, as we are off to Paris for a couple of days in May. I was always taught to keep hands at rest on lap if not in use, but never able to quite manage that...I am always to be found holding wine, enjoying my food and usually gesticulating wildly! Thanks for the permission to keep my hands in full view:)
ReplyDeleteThis is very informative. It is so important to know the table manners, (that unfortunately we lack in our country). Knowing and respecting cultures of other lands is a key to forming good friendships at all levels.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes
Good idea to write this post. I can't tell you how many times I have heard my mom or my mother-in-law declare: "On ne coupe jamais le nez du fromage!" (One does not cut the "nose" of the cheese!) -- This applies to Brie-type cheese, as illustrated on that postcard you found, but it is easier said than done when the cheese wedge is really long, or really soft... Oy. Veronique (French Girl in Seattle)
ReplyDeleteI wish this post was available 20 years ago when I first started out here: cut the cheese wrong and got kicked under the table by other half, scolded for placing the cutlery the wrong way around (although there are now 2 schools of thought on this one), and hiding my hands under the table. It's a wonder I'm still here! Super post for ze rules.
ReplyDeleteDon't you love them now?
The art of cutting cheese is very much followed and appreciated in my family too!
ReplyDeleteWe hate seeing bad cut cheeses!
Fra
In the States we always keep one hand in our lap unless cutting something. No weapons as we frisk everyone as they come into our home....;)
ReplyDeleteXX
Debra~
I love this post and this is why I ADORE traveling...to see the different cultures and to see how things are done differently from what I do here in America! Very, very interesting and enlightening to me! Thanks for sharing...it will help me when I come to Paris!
ReplyDeletedid not know there was a way to cut different cheese...well, everyday is anew learning!!
ReplyDeletehttp://sushmita-smile.blogspot.in/
The French can make even smoking appealing..but eating...ah...that is art itself!
ReplyDeleteMy boys will get such a kick out of this post, Sharon! Everytime my brother-in-law visits from Paris, I buy him wedges of camembert so he doesn't feel homesick. My boys simply don't understand why they can slice it sideways to have less of the "yucky white papery stuff" (which the dogs do enjoy!). Thanks for sharing, Cynthia
ReplyDeleteThis made me laugh from the title again! Oh my, the "trap" of the cheese course! And worse, when you are a foreigner, you are always offered it first out of politeness--aarrgh! How many, many times was I in need of your diagram! Finally, I just would ask "how should I cut this?" and that went far better. Actually, even yesterday I asked if I should eat the "peau" of a cheese that was new to me. I always find that my friends are so understanding about the fact that I grew up on Cheddar cheese and nothing else.
ReplyDeleteAs for the hands always being visible--I was also told that it was to make sure that there wasn't any funny business going on under the table! ;)
The cheese course is my very favorite. Fortunately, when we visit my good friend in Nomandy she tutors me on proper etiquette. Oh, and it is not an American thing to put the forks and spoons facing down although I think it looks kinda cool.
ReplyDeleteHey there!
ReplyDeleteLike your blog! I'm certainly going to follow you! Love the cheese course picture! Getting hungry by only looking at it, but that's in my nature... bye!
Daantje
Nice post!!I learned something new today! Nice cheese cutting picture, it explained everything!(I've been cutting it wrong at French people's house),ai-ya-ya!
ReplyDeleteBig thanks for your post.
Daphne
Cheese! I'm very glad you posted this, because i adore every kind of cheese i've ever tried, but haven't really thought about how to cut them. (I know what you're thinking.. how gauche, right?!) Now i know more. Knowledge is power! Even when it comes to cheese!
ReplyDeleteI always serve a cheese board although in America it is usually as an appetizer course. A variety is nice and I like to add some fruits and almonds.
ReplyDeleteXoxo
Karena
Art by Karena
Nice variety !!
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I made the mistake of serving a French couple cheese as an appetizer course while I was attending to the meal. Never again!
ReplyDeleteBonne semaine
Yup, there are all these dinner rules--including one where you have to get only an odd number of slices of cheese--1,3,5 but never 2 or 4! Go figure!!
ReplyDeleteLove the table flower setting.
ReplyDeleteI love fine dining and there is something classy about French living. By the way, nice table arrangement for a fine dining.
ReplyDelete