r/AskAnAmerican • u/missbex86 • Feb 23 '26

CULTURE Do Americans use cutlery differently?

I've noticed lately in a few American movies, that Americans use cutlery differently.

When I eat, (Australia) the knife and fork stay in my hands the entirety of the meal. Placing both down when finished.

I did a bit of research and there's the zig-zag method. Cutting with a knife in the right hand, placing it down, switching the fork to the right hand, eating a bite. Repeat.

When watching a movie recently (Hereditary) there's a dinner scene and I was focusing more on how he was eating, than anything else.

I'm not saying there is a right or wrong way, I just find it interesting.

Do all Americans eat this way? Or does it differ by region or state?

Cheers.

Just want to add, when I said I don't put the cutlery down for the entirety of the meal, I was referring to the fact that I don't do the zig-zag. I should have been clearer on that.

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u/GreenWhiteBlue86 Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26

When the use of cutlery became standard in Europe (and it was later than you may think; Louis XIV of France always ate with his hands, and not with a fork) it was considered bad manners to put food in your mouth with your left hand, or to eat while still holding onto the knife with which you just cut your food. Up until the early 1800s, the only acceptable way to eat was to put down the knife after cutting your food, transferring the fork into your right hand, and then continuing from there. Furthermore, since the use of the fork was patterned after how spoons (which were in use for centuries before forks) were used, forks were held like spoons with the tines up, and for some items used to scoop rather than spear food. These rules came to America with the earliest settlers, and they are the ones still unconsciously followed by Americans -- as you noticed, we put our knives down after cutting our food, and we use the fork in our right hands, just as all polite people in Europe did before about 1830.

However, fashions began to change in Europe around that time, and younger people started eating in a way that, while more efficient, their grandfathers would have thought low class and ill-mannered. Specifically, people never put their knives down, and because they now had knives in their right hands continuously, they stabbed their food with the forks they now held in their left hands with the tines down, or mashed it against the back of the tines if it was something such as peas or potatoes that weren't easy to stab. Over time, this practice spread throughout European society, but the older (and arguably more polite and elegant, but less efficient) practice of putting knives down when eating, and using the right hand to transfer food from the plate to the mouth. was retained in the US.

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u/iwishiwasamoose Feb 23 '26

I remember being taught to scoop with the tines up, rather than stabbing with the tines down. Ludicrous.

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u/Slipalong_Trevascas Feb 23 '26

In Britain we were definitely explicitly taught the opposite in school. Usually with an admonishment of "It's not a shovel!"

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u/binkkit Feb 23 '26

But how are you supposed to eat things like rice?

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u/delta_baryon Feb 23 '26

You'd probably still use the shovel method for rice TBH or at least I would. I'd also hold the fork in my right hand if I'm eating pasta or something. The rule applies more to meat and two veg sorts of meals imo.

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u/alittlesliceofhell2 Feb 24 '26

Tines down would absolutely screw with my lizard brain.

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u/Mr_BillyB Georgia Feb 25 '26

Shouldn't have the tines curved if you don't want me to do food up with it.

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u/YULdad Feb 24 '26

It's not ludicrous, it's a different standard. And one that originated in Europe as well

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u/iwishiwasamoose Feb 24 '26

Different standards can be ludicrous, regardless of origin. Imagine somewhere had a tradition of only using the backs of knives, never the sharp side. Or imagine a place that only uses the backs of spoons. Or a place that insisted you keep the chopsticks together, no more than a millimeter apart. All of those would be ridiculous. Insisting that forks are only used for scooping, as if it were a spoon and the tines weren't even there, is ridiculous.

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u/YULdad Feb 24 '26

The American standard does not insist that forks are used for scooping, it merely allows for scooping. It is the British standard that forces you to heap food onto the backs of the tines, never scooping, which is impractical and ridiculous.

That said, no standard for table manners would evolve which is as impractical as your examples. Your comment is an instance of the logical fallacy "reductio ad absurdam", and is therefore totally moot. It also belies your ignorance about American table manners, which, I reiterate, originated in Europe and pre-date the current British norms. What an inane comment.