Further Eating Rituals - Silverware? [General]

2007 May 24
Hey, all these threads on eating and restaurant rituals got me thinking. Do you eat American or European style?

American = Starting with fork in your left hand, knife in the right hand; once the food item is cut, lay down the knife, transfer the fork into right hand, and convey food to mouth tines facing up.

European = Fork in left hand tines down, knife in right. Cut food item, and convey food to mouth with the fork still in your left hand, tines facing down (do not switch hands).

Obviously if you are left handed, this may vary a bit. When I watch people in restaurants, most of them eat European style - I however eat American style (wonder if it's because my parents grew up in the US?). It's bizarre when you think about it, like holding a pencil - we do it so unconsciously and it would be near impossible to change styles at this point.

2007 May 24
I definitely eat European style, but the tines go flat once the food is cut.

2007 May 24
I'm left-handed, so I guess I eat European style because it's most comfortable. This is a silly thread :P

2007 May 24
It isn't silly! What IS silly is placing a salad fork on the left side of the plate in right-hand-dominant culture when there is no salad knife! ;-)

I've always thought that the placement and use of cutlery favours us lefties somewhat. Except for that darn spoon that's always on the right side!

I definitely eat "European style" with the following lefty adjustments: fork is always in left hand; spoon and knife are in right hand *IF* being used in conjunction with fork (e.g. eating spaghetti or standard fork-assist cutting); spoon and knife are in left hand if being used alone (e.g. eating soup or spreading butter).

2007 May 24
Hmmm...I'm right handed so I just eat with the fork in my right hand. If I do have to cut something, I guess I do switch hands with the fork, cut with the knife in my right hand, then switch back the fork with the food on it to my right hand. LOL.....this is silly yet funny!

2007 May 24
Silly maybe - I personally find it interesting. I became interested in the subject a few years ago when I started reading etiquette books such as "Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior". There was a debate about which method is the "correct" way. Miss Manners maintains that both are correct...however eating spaghetti with the aid of a spoon is not. Interestingly enough, it is also correct to eat asparagus with your fingers.

2007 May 24
"eating spaghetti with the aid of a spoon is not [correct]"

Hee hee... try telling that to the Italians! :-)

[EDIT: the Italians tell me I am wrong!]

2007 May 24
How about somewhere mid-Atlantic? I am lefthanded, so knife in left, and fork in right. The fork ends up staying in the right hand for most of the meal (although tines are mostly up, they are coquetteshly down sometimes as well). At some point in the meal, perhaps near the end, the fork migrates from my right to left hand.. like a bird flying south for the winter...mmm.. duck confit.

2007 May 24
I definitely do it American style...it just seems the easiest for someone who's right-handed.

I also know someone who took an etiquette course as part of training with the department of foreign affairs and I couldn't believe how picky diplomats can be. Did you know that the correct way to eat soup is by skimming your spoon AWAY from you? How did these arcane pieces of etiquette come about anyways?

Also, I'm pretty sure that when I was in Italy they didn't use a spoon, just twirled the pasta around on their fork without any other utensil to help. I could be remembering wrong though.

2007 May 24
I do a bit of each, mostly American style though, adjusted for being a lefty. I end up eating most of my meal with a fork in my right hand if it requires cutting, but if it doesn't, I use my left hand exclusively.

I don't recall ever being given a spoon when I was in Italy, just twirled around the fork, as mcsheffrey said.

2007 May 24
You guys are right, a quick internet search indicates that using a spoon for spaghetti is for children, people with bad manners, or (in exceptional cases) very liquid and splattery sauces. I'll have to adjust to this.

I blame my mother (don't we all) for teaching us that an Italian showed her how to eat spaghetti with a spoon. Of course, she might well have been a child at the time... ;-)

2007 May 24
It seems so ineffecient to transfer your fork to your dominant hand after you're done cutting! Could I actually be ambidextrous? I always have my fork in my left hand, if something requires cutting I steady it with the fork-in-left-hand and cut with the knife-in-right-hand. Hrm.

2007 May 24
etiquette schmetiquette!
who really cares?

I will continue to eat spaghetti with a fork and spoon and will probably make a big deal out of it if I ever do so in a restaurant, now that I know it might make some snoot get their shorts bunched up!

fork in left hand, knife in right. most of the time. sometimes they change around while eating but I'm not really inclined to spend much time figuring out just why.

2007 May 24
I'm like Pam, in that I tend to just keep things in one hand. I'm right handed, so I keep my fork in my right and if I need a knife, I use my left hand.

2007 May 24
This might be considered off topic but...
With regard to eating utensils and etiquette, PLEASE, LADIES, refrain from putting chopsticks in your hair!

thank you very much for letting me vent.

2007 May 24
European for sure. That's how my parent's (mainly my mom) taught me how to properly eat. Also, talking about cutting food, my girlfriend, even after my pleas not to, cuts up her long pasta (spaghetti, linguine, fettucine, etc) into 2" little pieces. I told her if she ever goes to Italy, never to do it, but she just laughs and eats her food :P

2007 May 25
I am with Pam and Candice... Are we commiting some sort of faux-pas with left-hand knife use?

And like FF, I use a spoon with spaghetti (though only at home) - my mother also taught me this. Could be generational... Though I still maintain that cutting long pasta is so wrong - my husband does this and it drives me crazy, which is why he continutes to do so.

2007 May 25
BTW, I'm right handed.

Knife: always in my right hand

Fork: in my left hand while cutting and for stabbing the cut food. It moves to my right hand if I'm scooping.

Spoon with spaghetti: at home, in restaurants, and even in Italy while on my honeymoon. :-)

2007 Jun 7
This is a long thread and I didn't get to read all (trying to read inconspicuously at work is not easy) so hope I'm not repeating, but here goes:

As for Italians eating pasta with a spoon, depends on where you're from. I dated a guy from a little town in Abruzzo and his family used a spoon. Seems that if you live anywhere north of Rome, spoons are a no-no. Can't remember how the Sicilians ate (that was a long time ago).

As far as my rituals are concerned: I eat the European way if I'm hungry (fork in left all the time), the American way (transfer fork from left for cutting to right for shovelling) if I'm taking my time and/or in an extra fancy restaurant. How's that for screwed up?! I'm alwasy such a fence sitter when it comes to everything but the food itself!

2007 Jun 9
American style here, and my friend who eats European style (although she is very much Canadian) always makes fun of me for it and says that I'm doing it wrong. No worries... I get to laugh endlessly at her inability to use chopsticks, so in my passion for Asian cuisine, it evens out in the end!

2007 Jun 27
I'm with Adam:

Knife: always in my right hand

Fork: in my left hand while cutting and for stabbing the cut food. It moves to my right hand if I'm scooping.

...thought "scooping" with a fork is probably a faux pas. LOL