The art of fine dining

Fine dining is more often ruined by manners than the quality of the meal itself

I’m a sucker for a sit-down dinner, served course by course, with appropriate crockery and cutlery — alas, the preserve mostly of official banquets where the meal itself counts for little, or the occasional corporate jamboree that is likely to be stiff and uneven because there’s an agenda — and speeches — that accompany most such meals. It was a pleasure, therefore, to be seated in a civilised manner at the home of a retired diplomat whose wife had taken the trouble of laying out an elegant feast, even though we behaved like barbarians at the table. No, not because