It's food for thought...

Oct 19 2004 By Helen Logan Evening Gazette

More than two years ago I pondered what shape business dinners of the future may take.

One of my responsibilities as Business Editor of the Evening Gazette is to attend business dinners and other corporate evening functions.

What prompted me to imagine what form these would take in years to come was because stories had started doing the rounds that some children had no idea how to use a knife and fork and some had never sat up at a dining table to eat a meal.

So I envisaged that instead of being confronted by an array of silverware and gourmet cuisine, guests at business dinners in a decade or so would be served a burger in a bun with chips which they were then able to eat with their fingers!

We have all heard of the three Rs when it comes to education, well, now another has been added to the list - "right way" to use a knife and fork.

Schools in Sunderland - and I am sure there are others all over the country which have the same problem - have now revealed that many of their kids can only eat with their fingers and pupils as old as 11 lack even basic table manners.

So they have taken on extra staff to teach youngsters how to use a knife and fork.

Call me old-fashioned but I do think that table manners and the like are useful in helping people get ahead in a career, particularly as meeting contacts over lunch or dinner forms an integral part of many people's business life.

As Tricia Bateley, head of Quarry View Primary, is quoted as saying: "If we teach children the basics of etiquette and using cutlery as part of good manners, they at least have that as a baseline to make personal decisions in later life."