Yesterday, I had a good salmon filet at a restaurant. I saw a neighbouring lady eat her meal with proper technique - that is, with the forked turned upside down.
When I was little, I learned that this was the “true” way of eating with fork and knife. I tried it out as a child but found it more comfortable to simply pile up food on the concave side of the fork and eat. It’s obviously the more intuitive approach.
And that pattern stayed with me for al these years, until yesterday, when i decided I wanted to eat properly. Using the convex side rather than the concave forces you to coordinate fork and knife a whole lot more. This means that you eat a bit slower but with more finesse. I soon understood why older people prefers this method.
Whatever gets the food from plate to mouth without dropping it is the “proper” way to use a fork. That upside-down tripe doesn’t work on loose food now, does it?
And I don’t normally cut with the right, then switch the fork to the right hand like you’re supposed to with each bite. Actually I’m kind of spoiled. I usually cut all my meat into bite-size chunks first, then put the knife down entirely and stab each piece with my fork.
Obviously I don’t go into super-expensive restaurants nor dine with the Queen very often.
My stepmother used to yell at me for cutting my food using the cut and switch method. I grew up thinking I was wrong. So does this mean I can call the bitch and tell her SHE was WRONG?
We’ve had these threads before, and as far as I can tell, it’s a regional thing, and there was no agreement.
My fork stays in my left hand all the time. If I switched over, I’d probably have been yelled at by my mum. I have seen some people hold the knife in their left hand and the fork in the right, and that was frowned upon, but even they didn’t switch.
The fork is generally held convex side upwards, but if convenience dictates that it needs to be concave side upwards (for peas or whatnot), then there’s no problem with doing that. In fact, the convex side upwards hold doesn’t strike me as being in any way formal, more that it’s actually easier for things like meat and chunks of larger vegetables. So whatever’s easier. But no switching hands, dammit!
I wouldn’t be so sure - my inlaws can eat petits pois off the convex side of a fork, without squashing them into place or using any kind of impromptu food-based adhesive.
I have always been under the impression that it was a US vs UK thing. The vast majority of people in the US do the cut food, put down knife, transfer fork, stab food. When I was in Glasgow (albeit many many moons ago) most people did the fork stay in the left hand, pile food on top of convex side of fork. And boy, with a little practice that is by far the fastest way to eat, even loose food. Especially if you can stab something solid to use as a dam to hold the loose food on the fork. I use it occasionally when I have a pile of food and am really hungry.
I’ve always found the American style to be helpful in preventing me from eating too fast, which I’m apt to do if very hungry. I don’t always stick to it though. For eating the meat portion of a meal, for those who don’t transfer the fork, it would be difficult to have the fork in any other position than upside down when it reaches your mouth.
I acutally see where the meal takes me. If there’s something to cut I will keep the fork in my left hand the rest of the meal and use it convex side up. If I don’t need to cut anything I keep it in my right hand and use it like a shovel. My Canadian parents were hand switchers who also put their forks down between bites. I didn’t eat meat when I was a child so I rarely had to cut anything and I didn’t pick up the habit of hand switching though I feel comfortable doing it if everyone else is. If I’m trying to display decorum I do what the host/hostess does. I think I learned that tip from a Miss Manners column.
I’m a complete utensil etiquette philistine. The only time I use a knife at all is to either butter my bread or cut steak that’s too tough. Everything else either gets cut with the side of the fork or winkled out with the tines. Even meat, if you go with the grain instead of across it, can be cut with the dull side of the fork. All that switching and ambidexterity required is just annoyance.
Being a typical Brit, I follow the One True Way, which is to hold the fork in the left hand, convex side up, and knife in the right. Cut each forkful as it is required; only children need their entire plateful cut up into bite-size lumps in advance, and it looks untidy on an adult’s plate. A few foods are not amenable to being impaled on the tines of the fork and for these it is acceptable to turn it convex side up and use it as a scoop. For foreign foods it is acceptable to eat these the foreigners’ way, such as spaghetti; as Italians wind strands around the fork rather than cut the whole mass into small lumps, so may you. Also, this may be eaten with the fork in the right hand and a spoon in the left (to help wind the spaghetti). There is no good excuse for switching the fork to the right hand otherwise.
Asparagus, incidentally, is eaten with the fingers.
Concur, although of course I fully understand the futility of trying to insist that the One True Way is in fact the One True Way.
Additionaly to the above, I was taught that meat served on the bone (chicken drumsticks, pork chops, ribs, etc) may be picked up and eaten directly and that this is not considered impolite because at truly formal occasions, such things would never be served anyway.
The fault’s with the person who covered the asparagus with the sauce. Obviously you should have been served uncovered asparagus and allowed to dip it in as much or as little sauce as you liked.
Yes, and additionally, they may be held in only one hand. Using both is uncouth.
No-one’s yet picked up on my reference to “turning it convex-side up”, which should have featured the important word “concave” unless you’re using biconvex cutlery for some reason. :rolleyes:
I was taught to be a switcher as a kid. When I lived in Bermuda I picked up the continental habit, but I’ve gone back to switching again. Old habits die hard.
The things I find gauche are waving the fork while talking and scraping the fork across the teeth, gaaah!
I learned the same thing. I remember being 5-6 yr. and not quite able to eat with the fork in the left hand and knife in the right, so I was allowed to switch until I was able to do it the ‘adult way’. I’ve also learned that the proper way of eating soup, is holding the spoon sideways to your mouth (you have to sort of pour the soup into the mouth). I think the reasoning behind this, is that you should not put any eating implements directly and too far into mouth - why that is I have no idea - but I’ve learned that it’s uncouth and bad manners.