Originally Posted by Lezleighd

Then she continued, "Tonite we are going to have a seven course meal." she smiled as she said it knowing that her stomach was rumbling. "Can anyone name ONE of the seven courses of a meal?" she asked as she flicked her wand to clear the screens hanging from the roof. "And don't forget to raise your hand before answering please."

Originally Posted by Lezleighd

Gemma smiled as the students' hands shot up in the air. It was nice to see so many of them know a few of courses. And of course, they all knew the best course, dessert..."You are all correct and have covered quite a few of the courses..." she said with a flick of her wand. Instantly, a list of the seven courses appeared on the screens.

1. Appetizers
2. Soup
3. Salad
4. Sorbet to clear the palette
5. Pasta, Fish or Poultry Dish
6. Red Meat, Fish, or Poultry with Vegetables
7. DESSERT!!!!

She smiled at the students, "If you haven't already, please grab your napkin and place it in your lap. It should stay there for the remainder of our meal and should be used occasionally to wipe your mouth."

With a flick of her wand menus dropped from the ceiling and landed in their laps. "We are going to begin our seven course meal. As we go along, I'll introduce you to some different rules of etiquette when eating. Feel free to ask any questions that you think of. "



"Please glance over the menu..."she said excitedly and then once she felt like they had all had ample time to preview the menu, she flicked her wand and the menus flew away. "Okay let's get things started..."

She flicked her wand in a circular motion and the appetizer flew into the room and levitated above each of the tables. "Can anyone tell me what the proper direction we should pass the tray of brushetta around the table is?"

Originally Posted by Lezleighd

"You pass the food to the left going in a clockwise direction...if you were sitting at the table with the host, you would let the host start the food...but since we are all here learning together we don't have an official host, so the plate will just start with a random student..." with that the plates of bruschetta levitated to one person at the table and waited for it to be grabbed. "Please just grab one bruschetta off the plate. The plates have been charmed not to fall" she added before someone got nervous about that. "Because the bruschetta is a bread you may eat it with your hands....and place it on your bread dish..."

She flicked her wand and the menu appeared on the screens again and the appetizer was crossed out on the list. "Okay now onto to our next course...and no worries about not being able to finish all of the courses. Each course isn't a huge serving but just enough...." she said moving her wand to signal the cups of soup to come in. Each one flew in and levitated above the tables. "Now before we get our next course I just want to remind you of some common rules that apply in any eating setting...." she said with her sweet smile.

"Number One...never talk with food in your mouth...Number Two....Do not put your elbows on the table. This is rude and can knock items off the table...Number Three...Don't blow on your food, just let it cool down while you have conversations with other guests...and Number Four...If you ever get something that you don't like. It is always customary to take atleast one bite to try it out....unless you are allergic and then you just don't touch it...." yes those were some simple and good ones to start with.

"So before the soup is delivered, can anyone tell me from which side the food will be served to you? And when you done with a course, which side the dish will be removed from?" she asked hoping her question made sense.

Originally Posted by Lezleighd

The young professor's face was excited about all of the right answers. "Yes the waiter would serve you from the right side and take your plate from the left side...so always try to lean away just a little bit so that it makes it easier for the waiter to reach your serving setting..." she flicked her wand and the cups of minestrone levitated down to their right shoulders and then levitated to the serving plate. "You need to use the soup spoon..." she held up the spoon from the right side of her plate and all of the soup spoons on the table rose up slightly. "to eat your soup."



She gave them a little bit of time to eat their soup, and for her to eat her soup, and when it seemed like a majority of them were done she flicked her wand and the next course, the salad, in little glasses, flew in from a side door and levitated on the side of the room.



"Okay let's go on to our next course, our fruit salad. It has strawberries, pineapple, melons, blueberries, peaches, and watermelons diced up very small." She flicked her wand and the soup cups were removed from the table on the students' left side and instantly the glasses of fruit salad levitated around the students' right side and landed. "Make sure you use your salad fork" she said holding up the little fork causing all of these forks to raise up a little bit, "for the salad course."

As the students began to eat, she decided it was time to pose the next question, "Can anyone tell me what you do with your silverware after you have used it....not at the end of the meal but...for instance, after you butter a piece of bread, what do you do with your butter knife?

Originally Posted by Lezleighd

"Once used, your utensils, including the handles, must not touch the table again. Always rest forks, knives, and spoons on the side of your plate or in the bowl or cup." she picked up her used fork from her plate and demonstrated for them on the screen. "You should always place it on the outer rim of the plate if you grab a drink or wipe your mouth with your napkin or something similar. You should never let it rest gangplank fashion with half of it on the plate and half of it on the table."

She glanced around the room to see if the majority of students were done with the fruit salad course. "If you'll just place your salad fork in the cup, when you are done. This will signal that you are done with this course..." she waited for the students to do that and with a flick the cups where removed on the left side of each student and floated out as the next course flew in.

"This is the sorbet course...it looks like ice cream but it's more tart than that..." she paused and then remembered an important warning, "Don't eat it too fast or you'll get a brain freeze...this course is to clean the palate for your main courses..." she had to admit that this was her one of her favorite courses...she loved sorbet.



When it seemed that the majority of the students were done, she flicked her wand and the empty glass bowls disappeared and the next course came in.



She flicked her wand and the next course landed onto their serving plates. "Alright this is our first main dish. You can use the Fish Knife for this course..." she said picking up her knife, as the other utensils had, this fork raised up from all of the tables slightly. She flicked her wand and baskets of bread flew in an landed in the middle of each table.



"Now it is important for you to pace yourself as you eat so that you don't finish before others are halfway through. So if you are a slow eater, try to speed up a bit on this occasion so you don't hold everyone up. And if you are a quick eater, slow down." she said eying her lasagna...this was going to be so good and the smell of garlic was just amazing!!! One of her favorites.

"In the next course, we are going to have sourdough rolls. Can anyone tell me what the proper way to eat bread is?" she asked motioning for them to start eating their lasagna...then she took her first bite.

Originally Posted by Lezleighd

"Break slices of bread, rolls and muffins in half or in small pieces never larger than one bite. Butter each bite at a time. Small biscuits do not have to be broken. It is never appropriate to cut a roll with a knife." she said with a smile. "When the rolls are served in a basket, take one. Place the roll on the bread plate and then use your butter knife to grab a little slab of butter for your bread and place that on your bread plate a well. You should only butter the piece of bread that you are fixing to eat. You don't butter everything at once."

The professor waited for everyone to finish up the small lasagna dish and then she continued. "If you will place your fork on your plate when you are done..." she waited for the sounds of forks being placed on the current plate and then flicked her wand to take the current plate out and bring the main course plate in.

"Okay, it's now time for our Main Course." she flicked her wand and the plates were placed on the table and then baskets of rolls flew into the room and one landed on each table.



"Now when you are eating a steak or any type of meat that needs to be cut, the proper way to do it is to cut one piece at a time. You only want to cut what you are going to eat in one bit. Your slices should be little and bite sized..." she demonstrated at her table and it played on the screens for everyone to see.

"Everyone feel free to start eating the steak and vegetables...we are almost to our final course, dessert..." she said motioning for them to start eating.

"So what is the proper way to signal to waiters that you are done with your food?" she asked the students.

Originally Posted by Lezleighd

"Remember we never want to place a used utensil back on the table..." she said reminding them of a rule from a few courses back. "The proper way to signal to the wait staff that your are done with the course is to rest your fork, tines up, and knife blade in, with the handles resting at five o'clock an tips pointing to ten o'clock on your plate. And any unused silverware is simply left on the table. But we want to keep our napkin for right now because we still have one more course left."

She picked up her knife and fork and placed them on her plate to show them on the big screens. She waited for everyone to follow suit and then with a flick of her wand the steak plates, bread dishes, and basket of rolls raised up and flew out.

It was that time, her second favorite course...she loved the sorbet the most but dessert was always amazing. "Okay now onto our dessert course..." and with that long white plates with little shot shaped glasses flew in and levitated. "this is a fun course...it can sometimes be cheesecakes or pies or cobblers or even ice cream, but we put together something special for ya'll." She flicked her wand and the plates landed in front of the students.

"This is a special dessert medley so that you can try five different types of Italian inspired Muggle desserts..." She started picking up each shot glass off her plate and as she did the same glass rose up around the room slightly. "The first one is Chocolate Mousse with Dark Chocolate Cookie Crust, followed by Strawberry & White Chocolate Cream Cake, and next is Limoncello Mousse with Vanilla Cookie Crust, then Dark Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Mousse & Caramel Cream, and finally Amaretto Tiramisu with Almond. There is just enough for you to kind of taste and see if you like them." she said excitedly...



"Go ahead and dig in..." she said picking up her dessert spoon and taking a bite out of the Strawberry & White Chocolate Cream Cake glass on her plate.

"Here's another question, during the meal, if a woman, or girl, gets up to leave the table for any reason, what should the men do at the table when she leaves AND when she returns?" she asked the class watching them eating.