Reminds me of one of my first business trips to New York. Invited to dinner at Quilted Giraffe, I ordered cherry stone clams, knowing full well what they were but never having had any. They came. A dozen. Unchewable. Going down exactly like a cherry stone. I looked across the table at my boss, a wonderful woman, who looked back at me with a look that said, without question, “You ordered them, you EAT them.” Lesson learned.
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I did not know that the name referred to the texture! 
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When I took junior folks along to client meals, there was a simple instruction — not to order any of the most expensive things, no lobster, and nothing else messy for a business meal.
Started this after an analyst I took along to an important client dinner at a swank nyc steakhouse ordered the 2lb lobster, and we all had to wait for him to eat it, never mind watch. I was close to the client and had known them for a long time , so we laughed it off.
Someone else properly gave it to the analyst when they heard about it later (I didn’t feel the need to, the experience had already been pretty instructive in what never to do again, in my opinion). Took the kid a while to live it down.
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Yeah, one rule of thumb we taught the Spawns was to ‘read the room’. In this context, it basically meant not to order anything more expensive than the host or client ordered, and same for ordering booze. Not everybody learns that lesson the discreet way.
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Many people I hired didn’t come from backgrounds where they had been afforded those lessons.
For some, including the lobster guy, it was the fanciest place he had ever eaten at and didn’t expect to have that kind of meal again for a long time.
So I can understand the excitement.
But making your boss and the client wait while you make your way through a very messy meal that you realized was a mistake as soon as it showed up with fanfare…. 
I didn’t even think to warn him because it was one of the top steakhouses in the city, and I just assumed he would order the STEAK 
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I heard cringe-worthy horror stories of bad interview lunches involving students at the uni where I taught. I don’t even know what to say. I guess I learned what to from the parental units. Or maybe I read it somewhere. I was quite the reader in my day. and we didn’t even have cell phones to try to hide in our laps.
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We had to work very hard to move away from standards of judgement that involved implied privilege in order to hire folks who didn’t fit everyone’s existing idea of an ideal employee.
So, interview lunches, the beer test, and so on, had to be (painfully) worked out of the system or many deserving people might never have been hired for their merit.
But we have strayed far from silliness and funnies.
I bawled my eyes out reading that particular scene in the brilliant book (the movie doesn’t even come close), but this cracked me up nonetheless.
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Just good old fashioned common sense and good manners go a long way. Our school even gave coaching classes and practice dinners for interviews and “table manners.” I used to do some freshman orientation sessions. I tried to cram elementary financial literacy into a couple of sessions. This was not an elite university by any means. Many if not most of the students were the first generation in their families to go to college.
I can say this from experience - if the school has a great reputation, based on performance, in the local business community, their graduates will be in demand.
Is the main ingredient soylent green?
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Only one way to find out…
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You first.
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I’m good 
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That’s the way we were brought up.
Not what happens in the real world!
My dad was always quick to point out when I ordered the “most expensive” item (of the three of us, not the menu) when he would take my sister and me out to dinner, which has made me a generous host & appreciative of those who are, too.
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