How table etiquette has changed throughout history

Do not rest your elbows on the table, do not chew with your mouth open, do not speak with your mouth full. These are just some of the rules of good behavior at the table that you learned during your childhood. But not everyone stops and wonders where the habits considered good manners at mealtimes came from.

O awesome.club decided to produce a post telling the story of table etiquette and how it has changed over the course of history.

In Ancient Greece, the custom was to have three meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a diet based on the three Mediterranean pillars: wheat, olive oil and wine. Usually, people ate sitting on the floor, as the use of furniture was reserved for banquets. In place of plates, they used metal or terracotta containers, or bases made of bread. Although they ate with their fingers, they used a knife to cut meat and a spoon to eat soup. Men ate separately from women, and only got together after the meal.

Until the third century BC, the Greeks rejected innovations and novelties when it came to cooking. For them, food should be simple and frugal.

Roman gastronomy and customs received a strong influence from Greek culture from the year 300 BC However, the wealth of the empire made them adopt increasingly robust and elaborate meals. The main one was dinner, served in a specific room that wealthy houses had for this purpose, furnished with armchairs arranged around the table. Diners ate with their heads towards the table and their feet hanging off the chair. Among members of the privileged classes, men and women could eat together, but there was also the habit of the wife eating sitting in front of her husband. Before meals, the ancient Romans washed their feet and hands. They ate with their fingers and used two types of spoons. After picking up food, the custom was to wash your fingers and use a kind of napkin to clean your mouth. Food scraps (bones, peels, etc.) were thrown on the floor.

Byzantium was born as a Greek colony around 660 BC, but was refounded in the year 330 by Emperor Constantine I (known as Constantine the Great) to be the capital of the Byzantine Empire, under the name of Constantinople. The Byzantines were reputed to be very demanding with food preparation and table presentation. A very significant change from the previous era is that the Byzantines began to eat sitting down. The beds on which people ate with their bodies reclined disappeared, and eating while sitting in a chair became the official norm. The table was cleaned, provided with a tablecloth and napkins, and a bowl of water to wash your hands.

It was they who invented the fork and presented it in Venice, at the beginning of the 11th century, at the hands of Theodora, daughter of Emperor Constantine X Doukas. The object was considered extravagant, and São Pedro Damião even referred to it as a “diabolical instrument”. At the time, the fork was straight and had only two prongs. It was only in the 18th century that its format was adapted and reached what we know today, with its use popularized in Europe.

In Europe of the Late Middle Ages, the most common was to have two meals: lunch and dinner. Breakfast was seen as acceptable only for workers, children, the elderly and women. Noble men avoided the meal as it was considered immoral to break the night fast early in the morning.

People ate using spoons, and usually each diner had his own knife. Before each meal, participants washed their faces and hands.

In the Middle Ages, banquets became common among the elite, who took advantage of any opportunity to party. Usually, such events took place in large places, away from smoke and the kitchen. Diners were distributed according to hierarchy. The host had his own table, slightly higher than the others and especially lighted. In other words, he was the protagonist of the meal. Guests were accommodated around considering the status of each one: the more “important”, the closer it would be to the host. Everyone sat on one side of the table and ate from the front. It was customary for two people to share the same cup and also the bread. There was a specific object to cut the meat, which was then placed on the bread.

At that time, the rules of etiquette marked a clear difference between the court, the nobility and the commoners. In 1528, the book was published The Courtier, of the diplomat Baltasar Castiglione, and already in 1530, Erasmus of Rotterdam published De civilitate morum puerilium. The two works can be considered education and civility manuals, including good manners at table and during banquets. Erasmus, for example, advised eating with clean hands, keeping both hands on the table, not leaning on the elbows, sitting with an upright posture, placing the cutlery and cup on the right, and the bread on the left; among many other guidelines for not doing poorly in a host’s home.

The banquets offered by the court became practically a spectacle, under the influence of Italian cuisine. All food was served at the same time, allowing participants to take whatever they wanted. From the reign of Isabel I of Castile, men and women began to share the same table.

In the 17th century, the use of the fork, which until then was reserved for the rich, was popularized in France. From there, it reached the Iberian Peninsula, Italy and the British Isles.

Table manners distinguished the nobility of the people. Etiquette and good manners manuals were very successful, and until 1800 such rules were even included in children’s education books. The use of specific crockery and cutlery for certain foods began to be widespread, a practice that continues to this day. To demonstrate politeness, men and women needed to eat and drink according to certain rules, still acting as a good host or a good guest.

You had to know how to accept an invitation, what topics to discuss during the meal, where to sit and how to cut the meat. Usually, the host cut the meat, and his wife served the soup. Cutlery was positioned on the right, while bread and napkins were on the left.

By the beginning of the 20th century, etiquette standards had become well-established, and manuals no longer included basic things like the right way to hold cutlery. On the other hand, they went on to suggest somewhat complicated customs, such as the ideal dining room temperature.

Nowadays, we can say that good table manners are already part of society: not drinking if you have food in your mouth, not chewing with your mouth open and not talking with your mouth full are some examples. Even so, there are some rules of good behavior at meals that it is good to know so as not to look bad if you attend a more formal meal.

Don’t start eating before your host. This demonstrates lack of education;

Use cutlery from the outside in. They are positioned like this precisely to facilitate use;

Your portion of bread will be on your left, and it must be cut with your hands, not a knife;

The napkin should be positioned on your lap (yes, strange as it sounds, this is the correct way);

Don’t put your food on someone else’s plate or take any of someone else’s food;

Do not blow on the food to cool it down.

What table etiquette rules do you remember learning as a child? Have you had a chance to visit another place where the rules around meals were different than what you’re used to? Comment!