Barbara Hinkel's Table Manners Training Set

I've Added Something Very Unique to My Level I Course!

Yes, I have improved my Level I Course even more. I love teaching this course! It zings, it flows, the students respond exceptionally well to it, the parents are thrilled with it, and, most importantly, we all have a lot of fun doing this cotillion thing together!

I am always thinking of ways to improve my training. The set of training utensils were designed out of necessity. I had been teaching Table Manners for over ten years, but I was not satisfied. Although I demonstrate how to hold them correctly in the lecture portion of my classes, some students at my final dinner dances were holding their eating utensils abominably. So, in the summer of 2000 on my visit to South Africa, I took with me a design for a table manners training knife and fork. The idea was to provide my students with the tools to quickly learn the correct way to hold eating utensils. Parents also have an aide to monitor their practice. The training utensils I developed and now provide to every student answered my goal of having them eat in a civilized manner, whether using the American or European method.

You can see from these photos that this knife and fork have discrete indentations for placing the forefingers while cutting and transferring food to the mouth using the left hand. By doing so, the rest of the hands flow naturally around the handles of the knife and fork, and cutlery in general.

Notice the confident thrust of the hands when one is in complete control of cutting food using cutlery at the table. There is only one way to hold the knife and fork, just as there is only one way in proper manners to cut one's food. Whether you are eating the European or American method, this set does the trick of placing you confidently in control.

I made up my mind that only that if I could produce large numbers of these training tools at a reasonable cost to my cotillion families, I would offer them as an integral part of my course. I was successful! I am now proud to offer the Barbara Hinkel Table Manners Training Set. Over 1600 hundred utensil sets have been distributed through my program so far. This set is a high quality, matching knife and fork with pewter handles and stainless steel blades. Each one of my students receives a set of these training utensils, including their velvet bag container, as part of my Level I course. Students feel that having their own set makes it "special." Parents, even those that have had students before these were included, say they are worth it and really make it easier to learn and for them to monitor skills. As one thrilled mom said, they work best when, "I put them out every chance I get!"

I know these work because one Cotillion mom said, "My 7-year old won't eat with anything else."

Barbara Hinkel

P.S. A Table Manners Taining Spoon is in the works!