Dua Before Eating
Where this dua comes from
The hadith behind this is a specific correction, not just a general instruction. 'Umar ibn Abi Salamah, a young boy at the time, was eating carelessly from all over the dish, and the Prophet ﷺ told him: "Say Bismillah, eat with your right hand, and eat from what is nearest to you." The dua itself is just the one word — Bismillah — but it's worth keeping the full instruction in mind, since the hadith treats saying it as inseparable from table manners generally. A longer version exists too, extending it to "Bismillahi wa 'ala barakatillah" (in the name of Allah and with the blessing of Allah), used especially if someone forgot to say it at the start of the meal and remembers partway through — a separate hadith in Abu Dawud and Tirmidhi addresses that exact case.
When to recite
Before starting a meal.