Cutlery

[fusangite]

According to Queen Elizabeth II, the purpose of etiquette is to put others at ease because everyone knows the rules. For this reason, my cutlery handling techniques vary based on whom I'm around. There is no point in appearing to be a cutlery boor/snob by handling it differently than those around you.

When I'm alone or in an informal setting, I do the American hand-switching thing where I use the fork in the left hand when cutting and the right hand when scooping. When I'm in a formal setting, I always keep the fork in the left hand, convex side up. Of course, this formal technique is premised on European modular food where one uses a piece of meat or vegetable at the end of the fork to stop smaller, more mobile objects falling off.

Of course, some formal and many informal settings in which I eat are Chinese, in which case I can use chopsticks. I'm sure I do so boorishly and badly but I cultivate an ignorance of what i'm doing wrong so as not to feel uncomfortable.

I have not observed how left-handed people handle cutlery in informal settings but in formal settings, no allowances are made for handedness.

I'm hoping Thai cutlery protocols eventually come to dominate the world, with the fork and spoon in separate hands and a serrated side on one or both with which meat is cut.

I'm Canadian; most Canadians do the hand-switching thing all the time, as do most Americans. However, a larger percentage of Canadians do the formality-based protocol that I do. Elderly haute bourgeois Canadians and Americans, however, will sometimes use the formal method indiscriminately, regardless of social settign.

 

[delericho]

1. Are you left- or right-handed?
2. Where are you from?
3. Which hand do you hold your knife and fork in while, say, cutting a steak?
4. Which hand do you hold your knife and fork in while, say, eating a steak?
5. Which hand do you hold your fork in while, say, eating a piece of cheesecake?
6. Which hand do you hold your spoon in while, say, eating a bowl of cereal?

1) Slightly right handed. I'm pretty good with both.
2) Glasgow, Scotland
3) Knife left, fork right
4) Right
5) Right

I don't really know why I use my knife and fork in the 'wrong' hands. I've just always done it that way. And, yes, I get lots of 'I didn't know you were left-handed' comments. Incidentally, one of my brothers is left-handed, while the others are both right-handed. All three would give the same answers as me, except for #3, which would have the hands reversed.

 

[reveal]

1. Are you left- or right-handed?
2. Where are you from?
3. Which hand do you hold your knife and fork in while, say, cutting a steak?
4. Which hand do you hold your knife and fork in while, say, eating a steak?
5. Which hand do you hold your fork in while, say, eating a piece of cheesecake?
6. Which hand do you hold your spoon in while, say, eating a bowl of cereal?

1. Right-handed because I'm not a freak of nature.
2. *Insert Andrew Dice Clay joke here*
3. I don't. I prefer to pick up the steak with both hands and rip off chunks with my teeth.
4. See #2
5. You use forks while eating cheesecake? Weird-o.
6. Cereal is for slurpin' not for fancy spoonin'.

 

[DaveMage]

3. I don't. I prefer to pick up the steak with both hands and rip off chunks with my teeth.

Pshht...

Plate straight to mouth. Too much "middleman" using ones hands.

 

[Zander]

Regardless of which style is used to operate fork and knife, it is important never to cut more than one or two bites at one time.

I believe it's because that's how food was prepared for animals (pets and working dogs) before mass produced canned/bagged pet food became widely available. No doubt animals can cope with large chunks of meat but people liked to cut it up for them, possibly to ensure that animals in packs (such as hunting dogs) each got a share.

 

[diaglo]

1) Right handed
2) currently living in Stoned Mtn, Jawja
3) knife in right, fork in left
4) place knife down, place fork in right
5) right hand
6) right hand

 

[reveal]

4) place knife down, place fork in right

That must be a Southern thing because that's how I was taught to do it and my parents are from Alabama.

 

[daBooj]

rather ambidextrous, therefore am fluent with either style. I was taught the zig-zag, and until it starts annoying me (thus bringing it to my attention), I will use it. After finding myself becoming annoyed with the constant switching I will keep the fork in my left/right hand, using it to both scoop and stab. Now I suppose I'm capable of annoying people of both continents at the same time, no longer zigzagging, but keeping my fork in the wrong hand.

I'm american (SC to VA to MD), but am equally capable using chopsticks with either hand.

 

[MaxKaladin]

1. Are you left- or right-handed?
2. Where are you from?
3. Which hand do you hold your knife and fork in while, say, cutting a steak?
4. Which hand do you hold your knife and fork in while, say, eating a steak?
5. Which hand do you hold your fork in while, say, eating a piece of cheesecake?
6. Which hand do you hold your spoon in while, say, eating a bowl of cereal?

1. Right, though I have some vague memories of being forced to use my right hand over my left when very young.
2. Texas
3. Knife in right, fork in left.
4. knife on table, fork in right.
5. Right.
6. Right.

I've heard the rule about not cutting more than one or two bites at a time and routinely ignore it. I generally just cut up all my meat and then put the knife down. It's less bother than doing it a couple of bites at a time and that one or two bite rule always seemed rather silly and pointless. There seems to be a whole set of "exaggerated manners" rules like that. The whole bit about having different types of fork or spoon for different courses is another one.

 

[kenobi65]

1. Righty, though I'm "left-eye dominant", so I might be a confused lefty.
2. Born in California, raised in Wisconsin.
3. Knife in right hand, fork in left.
4. Fork in right hand, knife on edge of plate.
5. Right.
6. Right.

Oh, and I cut my steak one piece at a time. Just like Johnny Cash.