Canadian, right handed. The fork is in my right, knife in my left.
It would be interesting if people noted if they were specifically taught one way as a form of etiquette.
I was never taught a right way or a wrong way. It seems silly. If I am eating something that requires cutting the knife is in my dominant hand. I don’t switch to bring it to my mouth. Don’t need a knife? Fork or spoon in my dominant hand.
Non-American: knife in dominant hand. Don’t switch hands when actually placing food in mouth
For me, it’s always been a little off putting when I see someone cut off some pieces, switch hands and start eating with their fork in their dominant hand. It’s just so reminiscent of how a child eats, only now you’re a big boy who can cut his own meat so you do mommy’s part too.
The oddest thing I’ve seen people do with a fork is to hold it in their fist (like they’re going to stab someone with it) while cutting with the knife. It’s like their parents never showed them how to use utensils.
My dad insisted that I put down my fork while I chewed. I guess it was etiquette he had been taught.
Seems odd to me. It only takes 10 or 15 seconds to chew a bite. I choose now to lightly hold the fork. I’d do what other people do in a social setting.
Yeah, I don’t do a fist hold. I hold them with the handle sort of resting within my palm, the bottom of the fork rests near the last knuckle on my middle finger and is held there by pressure on the opposite side of the fork with my thumb. I then use my index finger to apply slight pressure to the ‘back’ of the fork about 3/4 of an inch in front of the line between the points where my thumb and middle finger touch the fork. (I’m sitting here holding a fork as I type this so that I know what I’m doing.)
My knife I hold similarly in my right hand and use it to push ‘sticky’ foods (like say smashed cauliflower) onto the back of the fork, sometimes when it is skewered on a piece of meat to mix flavors. Peas are the ones that I actually smash on to the back of the fork with the knife, although sometimes carrots if they are prepared poorly and fall apart on you when you attempt to skewer them with the tines.
Native Southern Californian, right-handed. Knife in right, fork in left, tines-down. This applies only when eating something that can’t be cut with a fork, of course. If there is only one item that needs a knife and it isn’t the entree, then I right-hand the form and switch-cut as needed.
I’m American, I switched to the European eating style a couple of years ago after constant teasing from my UK friend about ‘flipping the fork.’ I’m right handed so knife in right hand and fork in left, tines down. No switching between hands.
I don’t hold it with a fist, but I do hold my fork reverse grip between the fingertips of my non-dominant hand, for ease in pinning down what I’m cutting without having to angle my wrist uncomfortably. I don’t shift my grip while lifting the foot to my mouth, resulting in me holding the food with my fork hand’s palm facing up. I’m aware that this might look strange but take a perverse pleasure in being different from the normies.
Fork in right (dominant) hand, knife in left, no switching. That’s while eating from a plate.
If I’m carving a turkey or ham or roast, however, I’ll use the knife with my dominant (right) hand and the serving fork in my left.
I’m right handed. I hold my knife in my right hand and fork in my left. If I don’t need a knife, then I hold my fork in my right.
I do not switch after cutting.
Non-American, and I do it the American way - ie, switch. Nobody taught me to do this, and I don’t know if anybody else in my childhood did it - but probably not, since I was always taught to lay tables knife-on-the-right. What hands other people use for utensils is really not the sort of thing I notice.
The reason I do it this way … looking back, I think it’s down to the fact that we never ate many big-slab-o-meat style meals, but a lot of casseroles and curries and other sort of foods where you barely need to use a knife at all. So it drives me crazy having to hold on to this marginally-useful implement the whole way through a meal, when I might have to actually use it maybe twice. I just lay it down somewhere and only pick it up if I actually need it. I’m very proficient at cutting with the edge of a fork.
If you want to be really accurate, my number one most likely utensil style is “fork in the right hand, knife in the drawer”
I’m ambiclumsy, what is this “dominant hand” you speak of? My left is the strong hand, my right is the dexterous hand but this is in great part due to training. Very often I flip the silverware several times before starting to eat, as there are days neither configuration feels right; I’m also likely to flip several times during a meal. I can use a computer mouse or colored pencils with either hand, although I’m slower with the left (less practice).
One time that we were eating out, we got to talking about the reasons for manners and etiquette, and I mentioned having learned that (at least in Spanish etiquette) glasses are supposed to be ordered, not by what are they supposed to hold, but by height: highest on left if the person eating is a righty, the opposite if a lefty. One of my brothers said “oh c’mon, who takes the glass with… the… uh…” as I raised the glass which gee, I was holding with my left!
I’ve always held my fork in my left hand and my knife in my right. (I’m right handed.) I did this because the fork was under my left hand, the knife under my right.
In my teens, my parents suddenly decided this was wrong. Or noticed that I was doing this for the first time. They told me to switch. I wouldn’t.
Some teens battle parents over friends, or booze, or grades. Not me. I waged war (so to speak) over which hand would hold a fork.
I won.
My knife goes in my right (dominant) hand while I’m eating a course that requires cutting; my left hand when I just need something to help me push food onto my fork, and on the table while I’m eating the soup.
I also only use reverse grip on the fork while I’m using the knife; while the fork is is the dominant utensil I hold it normally. (And while I’m eating the soup, neither.)
I’m an adaptable guy.
Not to say I never have the fork in my dominant (right) hand, but when I’m cutting something I have the knife in that hand.
American (from Philly). I grew up with the switching thing. After 6 months in Europe, I started using my left (non-dominant) to stab and eat the meat I had cut. But when using the fork as a scoop I put it in my right hand. One thing I have never been able to do is cut with the knife in the left hand. That would be the most efficient. But I eat too fast anyway so inefficiency is desirable.
Today lunch consisted of poached salmon and boiled potatoes. I cut them both with the edge of the fork and never used my left hand.
That’s true but a lot of us also cut food with our left hand too.
I sure was. We’d catch hell if we always had the knife and fork in our hands like “a savage” or “two fisted eater.”
Lefty. American. Dominant and switch, never been shown another way and I’ve never paid enough attention to others to know how they do it.
Born, raised and still living in the civilised world: fork in my left hand and knife in my right hand…where they stay till I’m finished.
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