> I'm going to a restaurant with my friend before prom (we're chaperones... kind of). It's a *really* fancy restaurant and I'm, well, intimidated. I've never been to one quite this fancy.
>
> You do the silverwear thing from the outside in, right? But I was talking with my friend who said they might have silverwear *above* the plate, and extra glasses...!! And I simply can't eat all that food (how many courses does one need, really?), not to mention pronounce it.
>
> So... what do I do?
>
> Ga"whimpers for help"halia

According to my father, who is a trivia genius (but who often gets false ideas by trusting the wrong sources) the "outside in" thing for cutlery is a North American thing. The proper English way to do it was simply to know what EVERY possible piece of cutlery was used for. The cutlery would be set at the place from the largest utensil on the inside to the smallest on the outer edge, and people were simply supposed to pick the right utensil as the dishes were served.

For those who could not recall which fork is the correct one for eating caviar with the Earl of Winchester (I just made that up, does it sound real?), there is an alternative. According to these same traditions, if a utensil is accidentally dropped on the floor, one is not supposed to acknowledge it; instead, the help will remove the dropped utensil discreetly, and when the dish which requires the utensil is served, they will discreetly supply you with a clean utensil. Of course, anyone who knows my family well (which is nobody here, unless my brother has taken to reading the Forum) will know that any discussion like this leads (in short order) to strategic planning for how, when dining with the Queen, we would "discreetly" sweep all 42 utensils off the table at the beginning of the meal, forcing the help to bring us our utensils one at a time as they are needed and freeing us from the weighty burdens of memorizing the proper use of three different shrimp forks (which depend, of course, on which ocean the shrimp were caught in--information which can be determined by noting the color and texture of the shrimp).

Don "Has wonderful images of himself, his father, and his brother, dining with the Queen, and starting the meal by sweeping their place setting clear onto the floor with a broad sweep of the arm, then putting on an innocent face" Monkey