To eat a burger with my hands?

[Happytobefree17]

In a gastro pub?

My friend is aghast that I didn't use cutlery. Thinks I'm some sort of Neanderthal for eating with my hands.

Who is right?

Nonsense. Lots of very posh places serve burgers.

I'm of the opinion that if you are in a place where cutlery is provided, then it is meant to be used.

That's quite a generalisation. Would you eat a starter of nachos with a knife and fork just because you'll be using them to eat your main meal? Ice cream in a cone with a spoon because the main was eaten with cutlery?

Of course posh places serve burgers

Never heard of one being eaten with a knife and fork! Cut in half yeah that's as far as it goes.

I sometimes cut a burger in half to eat but always eat with my hands. I don't think I've ever eaten a burger with a knife and fork and I don't understand those who look down on people who use their hands. Who cares, really?

Plenty of 'posh' places serve burgers

I'm of the opinion that if you are in a place where cutlery is provided, then it is meant to be used

Ah so if you order soup but your place setting is laid with a knife and fork you use that? That would be fun to see.

Salad is probably the dividing line for me with whether I eat a burger with hands or cutlery - ie if there is food on the plate that needs cutlery to eat it then the whole meal will be eaten with cutlery. Otherwise the crumbs/salt/grease etc from the burger/chips ends up on the cutlery and that's eurgh!
I am still shocked that people think it's pretentious. Why?

Heston

Reminds me of when we too my old Mum to McDonald's - she'd never been before (this was years ago) and asked for a knife and fork, bless her!

Knife and fork when presented, be it a pub or a Wimpy.

"No one "looks better" eating a burger with cutlery. Unless their goal in life is to look like a complete nutter."

Absolutely, flowery.

How many of you "use cutlery wherever" would ask for a knife and fork if the table is set with chopsticks?

I would love to eat a burger in my hands but the only place I seem to be able to now is McDonald's - which I visit about once a year.

All other burgers seem to have turned into these towering monstrosities that will never fit into an ordinary human sized mouth so have to be eaten with a knife and fork, however wrong it might feel!

How many of you "use cutlery wherever" would ask for a knife and fork if the table is set with chopsticks?

Me. Again, my shaky hands and bad eyesight mean chopsticks are too difficult for me to eat with.

As someone whose DNA test shows she has 4% Neanderthal heritage I find you opening post racist OP. Current research shows Neanderthals were in most ways as capable as early Homo sapiens and not at all like the the creatures depicted in comics etc. The way in which people eat food is very much a matter of culture & convention.
Philip Howard until recently an arbiter on manners said the point of table manners was to make ones fellow eaters comfortable and it isn't necessary to stick strictly to etiquette .
Personally , off the point, I know, but I can't see the point of going to a good restaurant and choosing to eat a burger, when the best burgers are generally found a fast food places at a fraction of the cost.

No. No one 'looks better' when eating a burger with cutlery.

What you look like is a pretentious bell end.

With cutlery:
Pizza in a restaurant.
Burgers at restaurants, but only because I pull the filling out (usually falafel or something) and decline the bread.

Without cutlery:
Pizza at home.
Burgers from a BBQ.
Hot dogs.

We have Hot Dog Thursdays at work and one guy eats his hot dog with a knife and fork. I don't get that. It couldn't be shaped more efficiently for direct insertion into gob with fingers.

If cutlery is provided then you use it.

"My friend is aghast that I didn't use cutlery. Thinks I'm some sort of Neanderthal for eating with my hands."

It was this that had me dying laughing 😂😂

I always use a knife and fork when eating out. I just think it looks much better.

I don't get this comment. Looks better? How does it look better ... and better for who?

Someone eating a burger with a knife and fork doesn't 'look better' at all. It actually looks pretty weird.

Burgers are finger food.

Has debrett's been mentioned yet? Apparently sandwiches have to be eaten with your hand (as in just held with one hand).

My mum used to eat the smallest McDonalds hamburger by holding it in both paws like a hamster. It was so sweet. She also used to carefully arrange most of her chips (smallest bag) inside before she started. Impossibly uncouth

^ that was to Elvira

If cutlery is provided then you use it

Silly argument. By that measure, if there is a wine glass provided you must have wine.....

This perhaps answers the three seashells mystery.

Do you mean like in Demolition Man makeourfuture?