Using a knife and fork

[noelm]

hi all.....
another one of my "why is it so" questions! A while ago I was having dinner with my friend from Virginia (he came out here for work, loved it so much, he moved here) anyway, he found it interesting and amusing how we use a knife and fork compared to how most in the US do. We use the fork, always in our left hand, and cut food as we eat it, he will cut up some, then swap the fork to his right hand and eat the cut pieces (with the fork tines facing up) and at times, use his knife in his left hand to kind of cut food all backwards. I was just watching a US TV cooking show, and that's how they ate, cut the meat, swapped the fork to the right hand and kind of picked at pieces one by one. Now, please, as usual, this is not meant to say either way is right or wrong, good or bad, it's just how things are different around the world.

[Mako runner]

That is it for a right handed person here. Hold food down with the fork in the left hand and cut with the knife in the right. Now I think proper etiquette is cut 3 or less pieces switch fork to right hand and eat. I'm not one to worry about proper etiquette so I don't limit cutting to 3 or less pieces. I am more concerned with efficiency than etiquette...Charlie

[noelm]

I hold the fork kind of like holding a pencil, (but in my left hand) with my pointer finger down the bottom pushing on the back near the fork bits, cut something then use the fork, still in left hand, to transfer to my mouth, most US TV shows seem to indicate holding the fork right up high, almost backwards, funny hey?

[Parker Yacht]

Nah, I do the British thing, was raised in the Cayman Islands.
Left hand, fork upside down, cut with right, eat with left fork upside side.
Very Proper you know.

Or a spoon, right hand, good grip, right in the mouth.

[TheRealMacGyver]

IDK, I do it like you do. Maybe your Virginia friend was raised in the hood?

[Billinfla]

We put honey on our knives to keep the peas from rolling off..........

[Gnrphil]

I do it the "British way" too although I hold my fork in the right hand and knife in the left.

[V_Thirteen]

That is it for a right handed person here. Hold food down with the fork in the left hand and cut with the knife in the right. Now I think proper etiquette is cut 3 or less pieces switch fork to right hand and eat. I'm not one to worry about proper etiquette so I don't limit cutting to 3 or less pieces. I am more concerned with efficiency than etiquette...Charlie

I'm all for efficiency here, too. Grab it in your hands and bite a chunk out of it. Chew it three or four times, take a swig o' something, wash it down. Big burp, do it again.

[blaster]

I was just talking about this very subject yesterday. I have always kept my fork in my left hand and cut with a knife or used a spoon with my right hand. I was teased as a child for it. I’m not sure why I eat this way other than changing from left to right after cutting my food seemed redundant.

[TheRealMacGyver]

The knife in your right hand is also used to scrape the slop off the plate and neatly slide it onto the fork in your left hand.

[Mako runner]

I'm all for efficiency here, too. Grab it in your hands and bite a chunk out of it. Chew it three or four times, take a swig o' something, wash it down. Big burp, do it again.

Depending on the circumstances I have done that. And I am not ashamed to say it.

In my opinion there are times when being uncouth is absolutely appropriate...Charlie

[SeaCat22]

What about fried chicken or other foods usually eaten with hands?
How many folks here still use fork and knife to cut or pull away the meat?
I’m like a surgeon with utensils and rarely eat with my hands.
Don’t waste time switching hands...left hand fork, right hand knife. I usually just eat with a spoon and shovel it in.
What ever happened to the Spork?

[noelm]

Seems like only TV shows/movies cut stuff up, then change hands with the fork, there you go......

[LFBB]

I'm left handed, I cut with my right hand and eat with my left. If out to dinner the tines are always facing up, but if a casual dinner or among friends I might turn the fork around and have the tines facing down. I always cut a piece and eat, I may cut a couple and eat but never the entire piece of meat. That's what parents do for their kids, they cut up their food so they don't have to keep going back to cut again.

If a grown up cut his entire meal he/she has never grown up and still uses the technique their parents employed. I do not switch hands with my fork, It's always in my left hand.

[jmike]

All this forkn knife talk got me thinking about how I handle my grub shovelers.

Being left handed the only three things I actually do is write and swing a hammer ( not another thread with hammer it it!) and cut my food lefty. All other activities and I do mean ALL is with the right hand.

Never switch out silverware from hand to hand. I never eat with my fist clutching my fork or spoon like a ranch hand in a cowboy movie shoving beans in his bean hole...that is all