From Ozempic to surprise vegans: Your 2026 dinner party survival guide

April 11, 2026 — 5:30am

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In Season 6 of The Crown, the etiquette adviser had to urgently step in during the middle of filming. What horror had he spotted? Dominic West, playing Prince Charles, was eating some asparagus. He was using a knife and fork. You can imagine the sweat beginning to form on the brow of the expert. He knew he must immediately shout, “Oh my God, stop everything”.

Asparagus, it emerges, is meant to be eaten using the fingers, while green beans, an item of identical length, colour and weight, should be eaten with cutlery. Who knew? Meanwhile, bread rolls should be torn with the fingers, not cut with a knife; while a soup spoon, when dipped into soup, should travel away from the diner before making its final journey towards the mouth.

On the podcast Not Stupid, a listener recently supplied a 19th-century South Australian etiquette guide with the aim of amusing hosts Julia Baird and Jeremy Fernandez. Among the surprises was an injunction against expressing excessive praise for any dish. The idea was that such enthusiasm would imply the other dishes were not up to a similar standard, also that it was OK to take the last slice of cake.........

© The Sydney Morning Herald