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About the institution · Assessment and credentialing standards

Noble House of BrattlebyThe Brattleby Academy
DETPFoundationFormal examination

Dining Etiquette & Table Protocol

A working competence at table: reading an unfamiliar setting and service without memorising a layout, carrying the duties of host or guest through the whole arc of a meal, working with service staff and kitchens, including people whose diet, faith, allergy or access needs differ, and recovering when something goes wrong.

What this course teaches

Learning outcomes

  • Module 1 — Read an unfamiliar table setting as evidence about the meal to come, using cards, covers and absent items to infer sequence and expectation, and act on a reasonable inference rather than freezing or guessing wildly.
  • Module 2 — Read the arc of an unfamiliar meal from arrival to close, identify which service style is running it, and set a personal pace that matches the table rather than the learner's own habit.
  • Module 3 — Handle cutlery, glass and awkward food with a grip and rest that communicate pace correctly to host and staff, manage bread, soup, shellfish, bones and stones without private improvisation, and treat spills and breakages as procedure rather than personal failure.
  • Module 4 — Carry a guest's obligations correctly from the moment an invitation arrives to the moment thanks are sent, including a seating not chosen, conversation as work, and a graceful, well-timed exit.
  • Module 5 — Plan, run and repair a hosted meal — choosing the occasion, informing and seating guests deliberately, signalling the table's pace, feeding people whose needs differ from the host's own, and handling money and mishap without leaving a guest exposed.
  • Module 6 — Order, adjust, complain and pay in a served meal by working with waiting staff and the kitchen as competent colleagues, and settle a bill in a way that respects the host's role and the honest, unglamorous facts about tipping.
  • Module 7 — Handle wine and other drink at table with ordinary competence rather than performance, decline or accept a drink and a toast without awkwardness, and host a table on which drinking and not drinking sit together without comment.
  • Module 8 — Handle allergy, faith, access need, mixed-age tables, business meals and unfamiliar tables abroad as matters of safety, host duty and verification, without inventing rules or correcting anyone else's practice.
The governed structure

Syllabus

8 modules · 24 lessons · 48 learning objects. Lesson material is governed learning content and requires a learning entitlement.

Module 1 — Reading a table you have never seen

Read an unfamiliar table setting as evidence about the meal to come, using cards, covers and absent items to infer sequence and expectation, and act on a reasonable inference rather than freezing or guessing wildly.

  1. 1.1Lesson 1.1 — The table as instrument, not memory test
  2. 1.2Lesson 1.2 — Reading covers, cards and absences
  3. 1.3Lesson 1.3 — Deciding under uncertainty

Module 2 — The shape of a meal

Read the arc of an unfamiliar meal from arrival to close, identify which service style is running it, and set a personal pace that matches the table rather than the learner's own habit.

  1. 2.1Lesson 2.1 — Arrival, the start signal and the pause
  2. 2.2Lesson 2.2 — Reading the service style
  3. 2.3Lesson 2.3 — Matching tempo, and when a meal runs long or collapses early

Module 3 — Handling: cutlery, glass and difficult food

Handle cutlery, glass and awkward food with a grip and rest that communicate pace correctly to host and staff, manage bread, soup, shellfish, bones and stones without private improvisation, and treat spills and breakages as procedure rather than personal failure.

  1. 3.1Lesson 3.1 — Grip, rest and the vocabulary of finished positions
  2. 3.2Lesson 3.2 — Food that resists: bread, soup, shellfish, bones and stones
  3. 3.3Lesson 3.3 — Hands, spills and breakages: procedure, not shame

Module 4 — The guest's arc

Carry a guest's obligations correctly from the moment an invitation arrives to the moment thanks are sent, including a seating not chosen, conversation as work, and a graceful, well-timed exit.

  1. 4.1Lesson 4.1 — Accepting, declining and arriving
  2. 4.2Lesson 4.2 — The seat you are given, and the duty of conversation
  3. 4.3Lesson 4.3 — What is owed, and knowing when to leave

Module 5 — The host's arc

Plan, run and repair a hosted meal — choosing the occasion, informing and seating guests deliberately, signalling the table's pace, feeding people whose needs differ from the host's own, and handling money and mishap without leaving a guest exposed.

  1. 5.1Lesson 5.1 — Choosing the occasion and telling people the truth about it
  2. 5.2Lesson 5.2 — Seating, signals and feeding people you do not know well
  3. 5.3Lesson 5.3 — When it goes wrong, and who pays

Module 6 — Service, kitchens and money

Order, adjust, complain and pay in a served meal by working with waiting staff and the kitchen as competent colleagues, and settle a bill in a way that respects the host's role and the honest, unglamorous facts about tipping.

  1. 6.1Lesson 6.1 — Ordering as a working conversation
  2. 6.2Lesson 6.2 — When something is wrong
  3. 6.3Lesson 6.3 — The bill, splitting and tipping

Module 7 — Drink, abstention and the alcohol-free table

Handle wine and other drink at table with ordinary competence rather than performance, decline or accept a drink and a toast without awkwardness, and host a table on which drinking and not drinking sit together without comment.

  1. 7.1Lesson 7.1 — Wine handled as service, not as performance
  2. 7.2Lesson 7.2 — Declining, toasting and being toasted
  3. 7.3Lesson 7.3 — The realities of a real table, acknowledged without advice

Module 8 — Difference, difficulty and the limits of British convention

Handle allergy, faith, access need, mixed-age tables, business meals and unfamiliar tables abroad as matters of safety, host duty and verification, without inventing rules or correcting anyone else's practice.

  1. 8.1Lesson 8.1 — Allergy is not a preference, and faith is not yours to interpret
  2. 8.2Lesson 8.2 — Access, sensory need, assistance dogs and the mixed-age table
  3. 8.3Lesson 8.3 — Business meals, unfamiliar tables and correcting nobody

The examination position

A formal examination is available for this course. A pass does not by itself issue a credential; issuance is a separate governed decision.

Assessment and credentialing standards