Using a knife and fork

As a veggie, I don't usually have much to cut up. Consequently I'm a knife on the side, fork in right hand person.

🤷‍♂️😩🥴 Joseann. Not a job for parents of course!!

I am often amused when I see people attempting to eat a pasta meal like spag bol with a knife and fork in the traditional British way. Or risotto.
I use a knife and fork for a traditional English meal, with the knife in the right hand, but at home I use a ‘spork’ for rice and pasta. This is a fork with a large flat surface , prongs at the end, or a ‘splade’ which is similar with a sort of blade down one side.

I've noticed more and more of the US style of using cutlery on TV, even in shows which are set in the UK.

Providing people eat neatly and cleanly, do not gobble, spread food every where, or eat with their mouth open, does it matter what aids to eating they use and how they deploy them?

It doesn’t matter one iota Monica and I never look at other tables either get on with my own stuff
I do get irritated that we feel the need to copy everything American though

I can't say I notice which hand people use to hold their knife and fork; I am more conscious of them eating with mouths open and using bread etc to transfer foods like curries to their mouths, rather than cutlery. And as for eating pizzas straight out of the box, well!
Before I retired pressure was put on staff to do dinner duty, eating with the children 'to teach them table manners;' the dinner ladies were horrified at children trying to eat food covered in gravy using their hands, mashed potato, meat and vegetables. then wipe their hands on their jumpers.

I am left handed. As a baby I started with a spoon which I used in the left hand, obviously. So using a fork in the left when I graduated to k &f was natural.
Luckily, like most left handers I can use both pretty well, so no trouble with a knife.
And there are at least 10% of people who are lefties naturally, quite a lot of people!

Primrose53

My adult son has always chosen to eat using the fork in his right hand and knife in left. He does actually use them both. He has done this forever. He is righthanded but uses his left for lots of tasks.

My wee auntie would have said he was ‘amphibious’!

I’ve also noticed lots of people who don’t use cutlery properly, and it’s often quite unattractive to watch.

It’s all about etiquette the English gentry came up with and decided which is the right way to hold cutlery. Only the well off could use cutlery because they could afford it poor people used their hands. People who were left handed were considered lacking in some respect another ridiculous notion.
In some parts of the world people use rice or bread to eat their food with. It’s their tradition so there is no place for snobbery it’s the way they eat their food.

Primrose53

My adult son has always chosen to eat using the fork in his right hand and knife in left. He does actually use them both. He has done this forever. He is righthanded but uses his left for lots of tasks.

Our granddaughter does too Primrose, but as your son, she uses them properly.

I've always done knife in right hand, fork in left. I thought that was normal. However, due to a little tremor in my left hand these days I've now adopted the American way, - cut up food then switch fork to my right hand. Perfectly acceptable, I think.

On holiday once an American woman at our table suddenly announced to her husband, 'Oh look they're not cutting their food up first.' I thought that was very rude. She obviously thought it was hilariously funny. Not a good advertisement for Americans.

Tricky.
I have to admit to a touch of Hyacinth-inspired snobbishness when I see people holding a knife like a pencil, shovelling food into their mouths with their elbows on the table, or chewing with their mouths open. That is, in a formal situation. What people do in the privacy of their own home is entirely their business.
I noticed recently that my left handed GS holds his “eating irons” weirdly -he is only 11 though and I’d be the last to draw attention to it.
On the subject of eating - other than a dicky bib, any suggestions for not getting food/spag Bol sauce/ soup /grease/choc sauce down my not massive embonpoint ?

eazybee eating curry with bread, using it like a spoon is the usual way to eat curry.

Spoons, knives and forks are the British way of eating it because that is what we are accustomed to use to eat food.

I am left handed and hold my knife and fork in the ‘proper’ way

M0nica

Providing people eat neatly and cleanly, do not gobble, spread food every where, or eat with their mouth open, does it matter what aids to eating they use and how they deploy them?

I'm with you, Monica.

Does it matter? As long as the food gets from the plate to your mouth. I personally find it difficult to use my fork in my left hand so I tend to cut with my knife in my right hand then swapmy fork to my right hand. I have tried many times to use my fork in my left hand but it just feels wrong. It also feels wrong to use my knife in my left hand.

I've always done knife in right hand, fork in left. I thought that was normal. However, due to a little tremor in my left hand these days I've now adopted the American way, - cut up food then switch fork to my right hand. Perfectly acceptable, I think

This is the "normal" American way of eating and they dont think its rude to comment on how other people manage. However there are cities such as Boston where the "old" monied classes still eat in the English way and prefer what they call English service. Thats yet another form of snobbery.

Like some of the posters upthread I use a knife (left hand) and fork (right hand) for traditional dishes with meat but eat pasta, rice etc with just a fork. Im also quite handy with chopsticks.

M0nica

Providing people eat neatly and cleanly, do not gobble, spread food every where, or eat with their mouth open, does it matter what aids to eating they use and how they deploy them?

exactly.
the voice of reason.
it is not really good manners to be watching how other people eat; assuming no offences mentioned above, it is no one else's business.
and people using so-called traditional english method can be messy too, and those who eat with their hands can be neat, clean and skilful.
live and let live.

I use knife and fork in the conventional English manner most of the time but I don't hesitate to use a fork in the right hand if it's convenient for the kind of food in the plate. Different cultures have different conventions: when in Rome...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEwPv8Uj-N0

Welbeck. as you say
it is not really good manners to be watching how other people eat; assuming no offences mentioned above, it is no one else's business.

This topic comes up almost every year, whether it’s the children unable to use cutlery or eating the American way, or even the holding the knife like a pencil.

live and let live.

Perhaps the best use of cutlery manners of all involve concentrating on eating your food instead of watching for others to break your rules.

having preached tolerance, I do think children should learn how to use traditional cutlery, using cutlery, or not in the approved way shoould be a choice and not because you do not know how to use cutlery.

While holidaying in U.S.A. In 1980 we ordered pizza in a restaurant. Myself, husband and children happened to notice other diners staring, obviously intrigued we were using our knives and forks to eat.
Both my daughters are left handed despite us being right handed they hold knife in left hand.