# How Do You Hold Your Knife And Fork When Eating? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 25, 2012, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074 "2012-05-25T16:17:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074/101 "2012-05-29T10:29:17Z")
> [@Kiwi\_Fruit](#): > > Is this a whoosh? Apart from lefthanders, I’ve not seen anyone use their knife in their left hand. No it isn’t. I’m the same, I’ve noticed a few other Canucks in this thread do the same. Dominant hand holds the fork and the other the knife. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074/102 "2012-05-29T10:41:20Z")
> [@Kiwi\_Fruit](#): > > Is this a whoosh? Apart from lefthanders, I’ve not seen anyone use their knife in their left hand. I’m a right handed American, and I always hold my fork in my right hand, and knife in my left. Upthread a bit, I posted about when I tried to do it the other way around. Terrible results. How you other right handers have enough coordination to do it your way amazes me. ---
**Author:** ![Sri\_Theo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Sri\_Theo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sri_Theo)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074/103 "2012-05-29T10:50:49Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > I’m a right handed American, and I always hold my fork in my right hand, and knife in my left. Upthread a bit, I posted about when I tried to do it the other way around. Terrible results. How you other right handers have enough coordination to do it your way amazes me. Practice. It may feel unnatural but in the end it gives you a greater degree of control over what goes on the fork, the major part of manipulating your food is done with the knife. The fork just conveys it to your mouth. That video above is pretty good if you watch how she turns her wrists. Also in both cases she points the tines down! I’ve spent way too much time thinking about this. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074/104 "2012-05-29T10:59:32Z")
Other. If food will require cutting at some point, I’ll keep the fork in the left. If it is something like spaghetti (or other food that requires no cutting) I’ll sometimes move the fork to my right hand, I am right handed after all so if I am only using one utensil I may as well have it in that hand. ---
**Author:** ![alphamatix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/45deac/32.png) [@alphamatix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphamatix)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074/105 "2012-05-29T14:06:38Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > You stick the fork with your left hand, tines down, into the food - then you cut the food with the knife with your right hand, and then use that left hand to lift the piece you cut and bring it to mouth to eat. No switching of hands after cutting. > > If you are eating something that doesn’t require the use of a knife, then even most Europeans and others might just use their right (dominant) hand to eat. Obviously the same goes for spoons with soup or pudding or ice cream or whatever. Right hand is perfectly normal. This is what I do. I can’t imagine cutting anything with a knife in my left hand with any degree of success. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074/106 "2012-05-29T16:16:30Z")
I wonder why it is that those who do not switch hands seem to insist that doing so is “barbaric” or “rude” or “bizarre”? I do see that it may be a bit less efficient, but as someone else mentioned if it were all about efficiency we would drink our soup and eat meat with our hands. I don’t see “switchers” making such judgements about “non-switchers” either. What’s barbaric about changing hands? I really don’t understand. I also don’t get why cutting a boiled potato with a fork is “wrong”. (And yes, I put the fork tines down to cut my steak, but when I am ready to eat, I turn it tines up. Don’t see why that’s “wrong”, either.) It just seems like this whole issue carries a lot of value judgements for those who eat one way about those who eat differently, and I am not at all clear why. None of the methods of eating described here seem rude or barbaric or animalistic to me, just different. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074/107 "2012-05-29T20:44:37Z")
> [@Kiwi\_Fruit](#): > > Is this a whoosh? Apart from lefthanders, I’ve not seen anyone use their knife in their left hand. I’m righthanded, and of course I use my knife in my left hand. Fork stays in my right. I use my fork more than my knife so it makes sense for me to use my dominant hand for the most important implement. All that said I’m fascinated that people actually notice or care, or would talk about it to their spouses after dinner or whatever. I honestly have no idea how my friends and family use their knife and fork; it wouldn’t cross my mind to notice. As long as they aren’t talking with their mouths full or whatever, that’s all that matters. ---
**Author:** ![Sri\_Theo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Sri\_Theo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sri_Theo)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074/108 "2012-05-29T20:47:22Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > None of the methods of eating described here seem rude or barbaric or animalistic to me, just different. Yes you are superior to us in all ways, except one. Understanding fake outrage and teasing about the most minor issue imaginable is a normal form of human interaction. You are most welcome to learn more about our species. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2012, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074/109 "2012-05-29T23:40:37Z")
Ya know, some of the remarks above did not seem like teasing or fake outrage. If I misjudged the tone, sorry. However I do not think I am misjudging your tone. ---
**Author:** ![Kiwi\_Fruit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiwi_fruit/32/12_2.png) [@Kiwi\_Fruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiwi_Fruit)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074/110 "2012-05-30T03:11:37Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > I wonder why it is that those who do not switch hands seem to insist that doing so is “barbaric” or “rude” or “bizarre”? I do see that it may be a bit less efficient, but as someone else mentioned if it were all about efficiency we would drink our soup and eat meat with our hands. I don’t see “switchers” making such judgements about “non-switchers” either. What’s barbaric about changing hands? I really don’t understand. I also don’t get why cutting a boiled potato with a fork is “wrong”. (And yes, I put the fork tines down to cut my steak, but when I am ready to eat, I turn it tines up. Don’t see why that’s “wrong”, either.) It just seems like this whole issue carries a lot of value judgements for those who eat one way about those who eat differently, and I am not at all clear why. None of the methods of eating described here seem rude or barbaric or animalistic to me, just different. I didn’t aver that switching is wrong, just that it’s a custom from a different culture. As with many issues of manners, it is a matter of fitting into the society you are a part of. So although I emphasized that one does NOT cut food with a fork, it was from the POV of my society or culture, mid 20th to early 21st century New Zealand. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074/111 "2012-05-30T03:45:43Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > I wonder why it is that those who do not switch hands seem to insist that doing so is “barbaric” or “rude” or “bizarre”? I do see that it may be a bit less efficient, but as someone else mentioned if it were all about efficiency we would drink our soup and eat meat with our hands. I don’t see “switchers” making such judgements about “non-switchers” either. What’s barbaric about changing hands? I really don’t understand. I also don’t get why cutting a boiled potato with a fork is “wrong”. (And yes, I put the fork tines down to cut my steak, but when I am ready to eat, I turn it tines up. Don’t see why that’s “wrong”, either.) It just seems like this whole issue carries a lot of value judgements for those who eat one way about those who eat differently, and I am not at all clear why. None of the methods of eating described here seem rude or barbaric or animalistic to me, just different. Again, table manners were something that was very important to my parents, and therefore to me now. I always take notice of people with poor table manners, and to me that means switching utensils. While I can agree that there is a culture in the US that does this, it is very wrong to my culture. Chinese seem to have a predilection for horking in public. They’re OK with it, but I’m not. It’s almost the same, although not quite as squick-inducing. ---
**Author:** ![Norse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a9adbd/32.png) [@Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Norse)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074/112 "2012-05-30T07:20:45Z")
As a European, I keep the fork in my left hand. I also cut the food as I eat, not all of it before I start eating (this is generally seen as appropriate for toddlers and small children - and Americans 😉 - and not for older children and adults who are able to use a knife). I also use the fork curved side down to spear the food, not curved side up as a spoon or a scoop. If I’m served a stew of some sort, I use only the fork, in my right hand like a spoon, and spaghetti is of course eaten with my fork in my right hand and my spoon in my left. However, after having lived in the US for some time, I sometimes catch myself eating American style, i.e. cutting it all up first and then switching the fork to my right hand. But never at formal occasions. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074/113 "2012-05-30T07:27:24Z")
¿ Spoon? What does spaghetti have to do with a spoon? Spaghetti is eaten with a fork only as far as I’ve ever seen… ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074/114 "2012-05-30T12:24:40Z")
> [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](#): > > ¿ Spoon? What does spaghetti have to do with a spoon? Spaghetti is eaten with a fork only as far as I’ve ever seen… How gauche. > **[THE SPOON QUESTION, OR HOW TO EAT PASTA LIKE AN EXPERT (Published 1982)](https://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/19/garden/the-spoon-question-or-how-to-eat-pasta-like-an-expert.html?pagewanted=all)** > [@](#): > > ‘‘Most restaurants (and hostesses) that feature pasta provide guests with a large spoon as well as the knife and fork. The fork is used to spear a few strands of spaghetti, the tips are placed against the spoon, which is held on its side, in the left hand, and the fork is twirled, wrapping the spaghetti around itself as it turns. If no spoon is provided, the tips of the fork may be rested against the curve of the plate.’’ > > **‘‘The New Emily Post’s Etiquette,’’** Elizabeth L. Post, 1975 ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2012, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074/115 "2012-05-30T12:41:44Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Knife in left, fork in right, and they stay that way. Yep. ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074/116 "2012-05-31T23:26:58Z")
I happened to be stumbling through the living room when my mother was watching one of her cooking/cuisine shows on The Food Network. The host (Burt Wolf, perhaps?) was explaining the history of eating handedness: Handedness was part of table etiquette in the early days of Europe. Polite people would put their knife down, fill their right hand with the fork, and use it to eat. The purpose was to preclude stabbings across the table, particularly at those peace-treaty celebration banquets amongst the generals and their soldiers. When Europeans crossed the pond and established colonies, that was just the way things were done. Independence was declared and the colonies became States and the states became a Union. Then another war flared up in the Atlantic. During this time, Europe and England changed their eating styles to retain the fork in the left hand and, if you kept the knife in the right hand you kept it pointed at the meal, not raised or in any other way possibly threatening someone else at the table. But most colonial descendants were feeling rather anti-British at the time so the new custom was never adopted in the United States. I learned both ways to eat but prefer the European style. –G! …But I think I can do more for you With this here fork and knife! . --Tyler & Perry (Aerosmith) . _Eat the Rich_ . Get A Grip ---
**Author:** ![1stfruits](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/59ef9b/32.png) [@1stfruits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1stfruits)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074/117 "2012-10-24T02:43:44Z")
so :smack: but thats not why Im here. I get most annoyed with my mum, bless her, I shouldnt cos shes 84 now and allowed to hold her knife and fork however way she wants to…so I Googled ‘how do you hold your fork’-and this random :eek: forum came up and here I am. So I am normal when I hold my fork in left hand and knife in my right unless it is a rice dish and then it is the fork all the way. Back to my mum though. In between chews she holds them perpendicularly! Yup, straight up and down and resting on the table like I dont know whats and it bothers me cos someone could fall on those cuttleries or maybe stab an eye leaning over to get the salt and pepper if you get my drift…it also looks terrible, like she is angry, but shes not of course. Anyways, how to break this ancient habit of my mums? Any advice gratefully received. :D:p:o:cool: ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074/118 "2012-10-24T03:26:18Z")
> [@1stfruits](#): > > so :smack: but thats not why Im here. I get most annoyed with my mum, bless her, I shouldnt cos shes 84 now and allowed to hold her knife and fork however way she wants to..so I Googled ‘how do you hold your fork’-and this random :eek: forum came up and here I am. So I am normal when I hold my fork in left hand and knife in my right unless it is a rice dish and then it is the fork all the way. Back to my mum though. In between chews she holds them perpendicularly! Yup, straight up and down and resting on the table like I dont know whats and it bothers me cos someone could fall on those cuttleries or maybe stab an eye leaning over to get the salt and pepper if you get my drift…it also looks terrible, like she is angry, but shes not of course. Anyways, how to break this ancient habit of my mums? Any advice gratefully received. :D:p:o:cool: Lovely first post, welcome to this site it’s quite entertaining. Your mum sounds lovely, too. 🙂 How about, “mum, please lower your skewers a bit.” ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074/119 "2012-10-24T03:37:20Z")
> [@Sri\_Theo](#): > > Somebody needs to find/create youtube videos for all of these variations. Variety is the spice of life and all that but why would you use a fork to _cut_ things? Easier that way - don’t have to put the book down in order to pick up a knife! Somebody mentioned using fork and spoon to eat long pasta. I just use a fork for that, too - cut the pasta into decent-sized pieces with the edge of the fork and then scoop it up with the fork. And if I’m at a restaurant, not reading whilst eating, I may use either method - American-style or knife in right hand, fork in left. It was once pointed out to me that tables are set with the knife and spoon to the right of the plate and fork to the left because that way the utensils are available for use by the proper hand… ---
**Author:** ![Pacific420](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Pacific420](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pacific420)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2012, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074/120 "2012-10-24T07:01:14Z")
that’s how I eat my candy bars 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-hold-your-knife-and-fork-when-eating/623074.md?page=7)