Passing dishes or Food -

Passing dishes or Food -

1. Pass food from the left to the right. Do not stretch across the table, crossing other guests, to reach food or condiments.

2. Use your common sense. If the person sitting to your immediate left asks you to pass them a plate of food, do not pass the plate to the person on your right and wait for it to be passed around the entire table until it reaches the person on your left. The general idea is that several dishes being passed at one time go in the same direction.

3. If asked for the salt or pepper, pass both together, even if a table mate asks for only one of them. This is so dinner guests won't have to search for orphaned shakers.

4. Set any passed item, whether it's the salt and pepper shakers, a bread basket, or a butter plate, directly on the table instead of passing hand-to-hand.

5.Never intercept a pass. Snagging a roll out of the breadbasket or taking a shake of salt when it is en route to someone else is a no-no.

6.Always use serving utensils to serve yourself, not your personal silverware.