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The American way of using fork and knife is inefficient and inelegant.

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Re: The American way of using fork and knife is inefficient and inelegant.

#11

Post by jamesaguilar »

Rampant, completely unsubstantiated speculation that is probably contradicted by the evidence: I wonder if we'd be even more fat if we didn't switch. Switching slows down your eating, and I know that there is data to show that slower eating means you eat less. I guess the foods we eat too much of that are really bad for you, like snacks, sandwiches, and sodas, don't take a fork and knife at all.

That said, my wife and I are eating out French tonight, so I'll try to put down my guilt and manners and not switch hands!

Re: The American way of using fork and knife is inefficient and inelegant.

#13

Post by monorail »

>It’s telling that Caicedo, Patrick, and Post all attributed the decline of the cut-and-switch to a larger trend toward simplicity and ease—not a desire to seem more European.

There seems to be a strange connection. Americans don't worry very much about how Europeans do things, they are different but that's fine, but Europeans are obsessed with showing the Americans how they really should be like them. We are not like you, get over it.

Re: The American way of using fork and knife is inefficient and inelegant.

#16

Post by Svip »

Afforess wrote: post #12

I hate dining etiquette. It's a fancy way of saying " doing something a specific way because that's the way everyone else does it ". Groupthink at it's highest. I eat whatever way is best suited for the meal.

Fight the power!

Still, I eat with proper European table manners, because it's all we have left. Without that, it would be total anarchy! We might as well wear trousers on our heads and wear baguettes for shoes!

What's next? Wearing a neck tie on a shirt with buttons in the collar or - God forbid! - with short sleeves?! gags at the idea

Re: The American way of using fork and knife is inefficient and inelegant.

#17

Post by peeters »

fishtoaster wrote: post #8
kyllo wrote: post #4

I'm American and I've never done cut-and-switch. Since I was a kid, I've always knifed with my left and forked with my right. Never understood why people feel the need to cut meat with their right hand. So weird to me.

Presumably because cutting meat takes more strength and/or control than simply holding the meat still. It seem reasonable to relegate the latter to your non-dominant hand.

I find getting the fork into my mouth to require much finer motor skills than the simple sawing motion required for cutting. I'm with GP. I just keep the fork in the right hand and cut with the left.

As a kid, I was a cut-and-switcher, so maybe cutting with the right was more natural, but it definitely didn't seem hard to make the switch.

Re: The American way of using fork and knife is inefficient and inelegant.

#18

Post by Svip »

omgsean wrote: post #5

I'm left handed, never been an issue. I also never understood why table settings are the only thing where the world seems to appreciate my left-handedness.

I actually think it is supposed to make it a challenge to eat properly, to prove - at least when these manners were invented centuries ago - that one was a well-educated and respected member of the right part of society.

At the same time these rules were invented, you would have been hanged or worse for a good word, because of your left-handedness. Weirdo.

Re: The American way of using fork and knife is inefficient and inelegant.

#20

Post by Svip »

plant42 wrote: post #7

It is more common in Europe to hold the fork in your left hand rather than your right. But I think that has more to do with handedness than anything. I'm right-handed, yet hold the fork in my right hand and often get comments about being 'cack-handed'.

Part of being part of human society is to fight your basic instincts, which - as a right-handed person - would make you use the fork with the right hand. Hence why you should use the left hand.
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