to think that no-one knows how to hold a knife & fork anymore - YOU DON'T HOLD THE KNIFE LIKE A PENCIL

[Proudnscary]

...It doesn't make you look 'ladylike' when you hold your cutlery like knitting needles/pencils with a stupid pinchy grip. It makes you look like a pleb.

When, pray, did this momentous change take place and WHY??? I see it everywhere and it makes me worry for the future of our children who will all look like cack-handed imbeciles if they grow up to eat like that.

I'm scared! Why has that women's food covered her finger nails? Is it eating her? What is happening in that picture?

BTW I hold my fork tines down with my thumb below index finger on top. I hope this is acceptable even though it's in the wrong hand.

But when faced with peas I reverse it and shovel them up. What can I say? I like peas and I don't want to lose a single one.

And when I have a pudding with sauce I attack the pudding with a fork either sideways on or tines down in my left hand then put it down and transfer the spoon to my left hand to scoop up the custard. If it's particularly tasty I'll hold the fork tine side up and mash the crumbs so they stick between the tines and then suck it.

But usually I don't commit that particular faux pas because I can hardly ever manage pudding.

Does anyone want a list of my favourite restaurants so they can avoid the offensive sight of me eating?

Cailin - agree, agree.
some (unbred) people are very thoughtless, and rude.
That's why i don't listen to what they say -I'm proud of being left-handed, and I will do things the left-handed way if that's more comfortable
(although, I was lucky inthat both of my parents are lefties)

who the fuck eats a pastie with a knife and fork?

do they even SELL cutlery in Greggs?

There is a right way to do these things. Sorry bu there just is.

Although I am a bit conflicted about this as DS1 (when about 2 yrs old) was challenged for holding his cutlery wrongly by an older friend who pronounced that he'd never get a job if he did it like that

Sorry, with the pudding procedure I meant I hold the cutlery in my right hand not my left.

Just wanted to be clear for the benefit of those for whom other people's eating habits are an important social signifier.

But FantasticVoyage the right way to eat a curry is without cutlery and using the right hand only

why is there a spoon and a fork with puddings? are you supposed to put the food in your mouth on the spoon or the fork? Is the spoon taking the role of knife and used for chopping?

sister I know that it's common to put the spoon at the top of the plate with the knife and fork either side from the start of the meal.

It is correct to clear the plates and eating utensil and then put the spoon and/or fork on the right.

I only learned that recently and on my recent visit to a posh restaurant observed that is indeed the way they do it.

God knows why they let me in. After seeing my troggish behaviour they certainly won't be allowing me back.

A fork is only upturned and used rather as a spoon when no knife is used, such as in a fork buffet, in which case the fork should be in the right hand as you may also 'cut' with it.

By common I mean intolerable manners rather than something that happens a lot. Though it probably does in the homes and eating establishments of proles.

i dont mind how people hold their knives and forks .... what bugs me more is licking a knife. was raised that it was very bad manners to lick a knife.

As long as people aren't flinging food across the dinner table due to poor cutlery skills, or stabbing others, it doesn't bother me how they hold their cutlery. I find those who obsess about what order to use it in an utter bore also.

And I hate the term cack-handed. My mum uses it when she thinks she is being witty.

ruddynorah - only if you're right-handed. If you're left-handed, it's still in your left hand. :)

Angryfeet - that picture burnt through my eyeballs but yes! That is ONE illegal way to hold your fork. Dreadful. But I've seen women (sorry to be sexist but it is always women) holding it literally like a pencil, as if writing - in a little sort of scrunched up squirrely way.

Sorry am on phone to car insurance people trying to listen to them as well as reply so not quite sure what I'm writing.

(I am holding the phone like a phone, not like a pencil or a fork).

If you are operating, you hold a scalpel like a pencil though (well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it).

Ps it's not about manners, per se - to all those getting into knife licking etc - it's about looking like a total pleb.

I've seen people do the pen hold thing too -very distracting.

There was a girl (late teens/early 20s) on the next table to us in a hotel restaurant once. She was having real problems dealing with her full English breakfast because of it.

KLP is one of the biggest social faux pas.

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Shite that didn't work. Can't do links.

Whilst we are on the subject of etiquette, shall we discuss the bread roll eating??

Break into small pieces please, not cut in half and butter both sides, put back together and start chewing.

Ditto croissants.

There is a pic if you google 'how to hold a knife and fork properly' that shows correct way