Why is the only correct way your way? Americans hold their fork in their right hand and then switch to the left while cutting their meat. And then switch back. Why do you perceive this as incorrect? Because it's different from the way you do it? I do object to holding either the fork or the knife with a fist. Maybe it's because we don't boil our meat to death.

BTW Mike, I'd like to see that trick.

I'm American by the way and switching hands is considered inappropriate by all etiquette standards. In grade school and at home (I'm only in my late 20's)we were taught to never switch hands.
It looks unrefined and it is tacky.

Miss Manners what you write is untrue. Switching hands is appropriate for Americans.

To X,
I guess you're right. It's only inappropriate everywhere else in the world when a fork and knife are the typical untensils.

I don't know where Miz manners went to finishing school, or if she went to finishing school, but if it was in the U.S., she would know that the proper AMERICAN technique is to switch. This is more difficult, but is considered perfectly acceptable.

Europeans eat with the fork in the left hand. This method does make quite a bit more sense, but then most Americans don't need any help in eating more efficiently.

Here's an excerpt from manners book:

There are two ways to use a knife and fork to cut and eat your food. They are the American style and the European or Continental style. Either style is considered appropriate. In the American style, one cuts the food by holding the knife in the right hand and the fork in the left hand with the fork tines piercing the food to secure it on the plate. Cut a few bite-size pieces of food, then lay your knife across the top edge of your plate with the sharp edge of the blade facing in. Change your fork from your left to your right hand to eat, fork tines facing up. (If you are left-handed, keep your fork in your left hand, tines facing up.) The European or Continental style is the same as the American style in that you cut your meat by holding your knife in your right hand while securing your food with your fork in your left hand. The difference is your fork remains in your left hand, tines facing down, and the knife in your right hand. Simply eat the cut pieces of food by picking them up with your fork still in your left hand.

American style is perfectly correct for Americans. Each country has different customs- China you don't use knives at all, it's okay to slurp noodles in japan, in India you can correctly use your fingers and bread to eat. The proper ettiquitte is what is acceptable in your region/circle of aquaintances. Don't be such snobs.

I WISH the only "problem" with American manners were switching hands when cutting food. Frankly, there's some reason behind the etiquette if you assume everyone is right-handed (they aren't but that's another thread), since it has you using your right hand to cut and then your right hand to use the fork -- presumably, you are too clumsy with your left hand to work a knife and a fork deftly.

HOWEVER: I'm happy to let people keep the fork in their right hand and cut with their left if they promise not to send the chicken across the table into my lap while doing so. In the meantime, PLEASE learn not to hold the fork with fist (as "x" noted) and to scoop up the food with the tines head-on, not the side of the fork. Nothing makes you look more like an iggerant field hand than scraping a plate with your four fingers wrapped around the forkhandle moving the side of the fork around as if it were plow.

And don't europeans look goofy trying to balance peas on the wrong side of their fork??

Letitia,
Why do you think it's efficient? Wouldn't it be more efficient to keep the fork in the same hand?
Efficient? Shouldn't the word be elegant when describing manners Letitia?

Seems like I recall hearing during WWII that how one held his fork and knife was used to tell if a German was posing as an American or vice versa.

Oh, who really cares?

The important question is if you eat fried chicken with your hands or try to use a knife and fork?

Jeannie,
My grandfather told me that also. He learned to hold the fork in his left and never stopped.

Miss Manners says you eat fried chicken with a knife and fork if there's a white table cloth and candles -- but wants to know who serves fried chicken on a white table cloth and candles. If you are at a casual table, you can use a knife and fork for the breast or thigh but you can pick up the drumstick. If you are at a picnic, use your fingers.

Believe it or not, I went to a wedding where fried chicken was served on a white tablecloth and candles.
I ate it with a fork and knife while others ate with their hands in gowns and tuxedoes.
By the way, I don't switch hands even though I'm right handed.

Rebecca, that is hilarious.

BTW, just curious, I use to know a Rebecca who used the handle "REBEL" on Prodigy about 10 years ago.

You wouldn't happen to know some people in Madison, WI would you?

JPM,
No connection. I've been to Madison, WI but don't know anyone from there.
It was hilarious seeing grease dripping down the bride's chin from the fried chicken. Luckily,I didn't know the couple personally but was invited by a friend.

The rule of thumb is you switch hands to cut your food if you're at the Golden Corral or Denny's. You do not switch hands if your at Nobu or Morton's.

Wow Rebecca you were at a wedding where the bride actually got to eat!!!!?

X,
Great point! I never thought of that until you mentioned it. Yes, the girl put it away in front of my eyes.
Fried Chicken, mashed potatoes and the fixings.
I was very impressed because they gave you the choice of crispy and extra crispy - just kidding about that point but everything else is true.
Oh yeah, the idiot groom did push the piece of cake all over the bride's face and she wasn't too happy. I guess chicken grease on her face was acceptable but cake wasn't?
Everything is true exc

Someone has just started this thread on the Europe board. I don't switch but don't care if people do as long as they don't crash their knives into the plate.
Freddie, what the heck is a Golden Corral?

Good grief; what difference does it make, really?
I had fried chicken at my own wedding, and ate it with my hands.

But then again, that was part of the point. We were all dressed up, but still the same unpretentious people we always were.

No "Miz" Manners, I meant to say efficient, not elegant. I was referring to the fact that eating European style is more efficient than eating in the American Style. Far less manipulation of utensils.

Which method is more elegant is purely subjective.

I maintain that either method is proper, as would anyone who has any true knowledge of manners. It's very pretentious to come on a public message board telling people how to eat correctly, not to mention embarassing, especially when you are wrong.

The European style is more logical, more efficient, and intuitively makes more sense. American manners are presumptious and narrow minded. As far as I know, we are the only nation where the people fumble knives and forks from one hand to the other and call it "proper".

I eat European style because it is more convenient. Miss Manners can take a hike as far as I am concerned.
It is all arbitrary fol-de-rol anyhow and mostly an exercise in social snobbery.

I don't throw my food on the floor, wipe my mouth with the back of my hand, slurp my soup, saucer and blow my coffee, or eat peas with my knife.

I like the Chinese idea. Enjoy your food.

I guess it depends where in Europe the gentile people hail from. When we were in Bonaire there was a group there from the Netherlands and their eating habits and table manners were so gross it made you gag to watch them eat. Talk about Hoovers! I swear they put their lips at the edge of the plate and inhaled.

Well, I guess I am really screwed up. My mother was from England and my dad the US. Add to that the fact that I am left handed....but I do manage to get it cut and eaten with the minimum amount of drool running down my chin, and I do chew with my mouth closed....my elbows are usually OFF the table...BTW is it considered bad manners to cut a bunch of meat at one time. Meat should be cut as it's eaten.

Bob, it's always interesting to listen to a supercilious snob try to justify their sanctimonious position while at the same time denigrate the actions of others as "presumptious and narrow minded." To coin an old phrase, you are the pot calling the kettle black.

You would know all about social snobbery, wouldn't you Bob? Heck, you probably hold an advanced degree in it.

All the problems, pain and suffering in the world and you're worrying about a stranger's table manners?

Sheesh, somebody needs a life...

Oh Bob, you're such a tool. American manners are presumptious and narrow minded? How is holding one's utensils differently than Europeans presumptious? Because we "presume" that we have a right to do things differently? You've written some idiotic things on the board before, but this absolutely takes the cake. What a ridiculous snob you are.

Puhleeze people,
Switching hands is an inept attempt at using flatware. Why is it that it was only established in the U.S. and the rest of the flatware using world doesn't conform to this way? It is equivalent to keeping one's elbows on the table. Unrefined.

Hey brother/sister X I'm wiping away tears of laughter after reading that you called Bob a "tool"! Those darn fingers!!!

Change all these responses about supercilious and sanctimonious snobs to address the faux Miz Manners, Bob, and Leah.

Puhleeze yourself Leah. There are many ways in which the U.S. doesn't "conform" to what's done in the rest of the world. Why is it wrong to be different?

Miz Manners has started a very funny thread here. I am American and was taught the PROPER American way to eat -- the switch method. I went to Europe first some 40 years ago and learned to eat the non-switch way, and pretty much do that to this day.

But BAD MANNERS is not eating food the proper American way. Bad manners is insisting that everyone around who you eats the proper way is some sort of idiot or hick because they don't do things the way you do or perceive they should be done.

Miz Manners, get over yourself. You have BAD manners!

you do realize this thread is from a decade ago?

Wow, this thread is pre-registration. A real oldie goldie!

How much do you want to bet the wedding couple from above are now divorced? Cake smashing is a divorce-able in my book.

"you do realize this thread is from a decade ago?"

So? Nothing has really changed about the proper way of eating, and I doubt that the past decade has made Miz Manners any more "mannerly".

Old thread, but I'll throw in. I recall reading that the "American" style actually predates the Continental style. As times moved along, Europeans adopted this more efficient style, but we Americans kept to the original "zig-zag" method.

Maybe true, maybe not.

In my opinion, if one is able to use both methods, one might endeavor to use the method that prevails wherever they are at the time. But most importantly, just be tidy, don't be snobbish, and try not to gross out your fellow diners.

I grew up in Canada eating the European way but I still remember the first time I realized Americans switched hands- I was staring at the person in amazement as they cut and switched - I still don't get it. You already have the fork in your left hand with some food on it- might as well eliminate a step and just hold onto it.

Usually just use the fork. Easier.

A lot of us "don't get" why ANYBODY would even THINK of living in Canada, get it?

DO leave this rather trivial "question" alone.

who cares? Quite frankly when i go out to eat if i see someone switching or not switching hands i really don't give it a second thought.

I have no idea how I eat. I'm left handed. I've never thought about it. These days I eat very little meat, so I don't use a knife much.

I guess I'll have to think about it next time I sit down to a meal.

Wow! Some really "old" names like Letitia!

Thanks Neopatrick for reviving an golden oldie! Threads like these was what made it fun on Fodors - the joshing back and forth

Didn't read all the replies on this 10/yr old thread, but though I was taught as a child to switch utensils, by the time I was about 8/yrs old, wondered why this extra step when I could get food into my face sooner... that was the end of my switching. The family thought I had lost it, but nowadays seems everyone I know doesn't bother with the switching and they're all Americans.

As to using a knife/fork only to cut meat? Not me... whatever might have to be cut, but even just getting some small morsels - pasta, salad, veggies, other - I find easier with both utensils rather than attacking any of these with only a fork or using a piece of bread. But then, I can eat as a righty or lefty... no issue with me.

What if your missing a hand?

sandi - When I was about 8, some of our cousins visited from Morocco and France. They all ate the European way, which I thought was extremely logical, so I started eating that way too. My dad put a stop to it though when he yelled at my and told me I was an American and I should eat like one. Thanks dad. He is known for unenlightened, reactionary responses.