Bringing classy back teaches you the right way to use your knife and fork. We will show you the American way and then the proper way, the way Europeans do it.
Agreed on cutting, but as a European, I've never piled food on top of the fork. If I want to eat food that can't be stabbed, I keep the fork in the left hand, but turn it over with the tines pointing up. That way you have a stable surface.
Totally agreed, Stefan. Squishing stuff onto the back of the fork (though still sometimes seen, in Britain at least) comes across as a very prim-and-proper and pointedly posh way of eating. On the other hand (no pun intended), European-style two-handed eating (never put either knife or fork down until you've finished eating, except perhaps now and then to take a drink) IS far more efficient than the trans-Atlantic one-handed way. We use the fork tines-down for "stabbable" items, and tines-up for "scoopable" food, like rice. Seeing someone use their fork as a cutting instrument (that's what the knife is for) always makes me wince, as does holding the fork like a pen. The "use-the-knife-as-little-as-possible" method of eating always gives me the impression that Americans never progressed much further beyond the let-mommy-cut-up-your-food-for-you stage than finally being allowed very strictly limited use of the knife. Learning to handle a knife and fork in co-ordinated fashion at an early age is no harder than learning to ride a bike (in fact it's a lot easier), and, like that skill, once aquired it is never forgotten. I do agree with others who've said that leaving your knife and fork in the MIDDLE of the plate when you've finished eating is very inconsiderate to those who have the job of clearing the dishes away. Who wants to have to scrabble about retrieving eating-irons from the remains of a meal before they can stack the dishes? No, leave the handles overlapping the edge of the plate. It doesn't matter at what o'clock (I prefer half-past-six myself!): the important thing is that your knife and fork should be side by side: that's the signal that you've finished.
@RU-vid Videos Well, The British way is indeed uncultured! As I said above: I'd like to see you eat some peas that way! Just look at your fork: Where does the brand logo stand? Exactly. On the UNDERSIDE! If you're consequent, then hold your spoon the same way as your fork! Now try to eat some soup!
@RU-vid Videos Hey, you totally stupid idiot, you absolutely can't eat PEAS this way! You can eat ONE PEA at the time this way, or two if you're lucky!! Or do you mash them first?~YUCK!!!
@RU-vid Videos They had better taught you at school the things that matter in life, not how to hold a fork the wrong way! But as I said in an earlier comment: on the continent we call this the idiots way to hold a fork. As you've found out btw, we, on the continent, don't take the British seriously! Now, if you're consequent, then hold your spoon the same way as your fork! Now try to eat some soup!
@RU-vid Videos Haha, I like that! "etiquette". You pronounce "Bucket" also as "Bouquet", don't you? Well you have the wrong table matters taught to you! Taking the British seriously is absolutely impossible on the continent! But what can one expect of a bunch of islanders after dozens of generations of inbreed? As I mentioned several times before: They even don't know how to hold a fork properly. And why do you keep referring to Americans?? I'm talking about continental Europeans! Furthermore you say: "idgaf what someone else thinks, I was taught how to use a knife and fork properly, that's all. It isnt that deep." Then why do you make such a fuss of it? YOU were the one that started with "Unclutured swine (I think you mean "Uncultured" btw) 😂 they taught us at school and now I can't take people seriously who use their fork like a child" As far as I'm concerned you can keep holding it the the way you like it! I've said it before: 1:01 OH NO!!!! That is not the EUROPEAN way!! That's the BRITISH way (or as we say on the continent: the idiots way) I'd like to see you eat some peas that way (without smashing them, of course!) Just look at your fork: Where does the brand logo stand? Exactly. On the UNDERSIDE! Now, if you're consequent, then hold your spoon the same way as you hold your fork! Now try to eat some soup!
Thank you for making this video 😊 I'm a 30 year old Canadian who had brain surgery for brain tumours (benign) that were causing seizures. I'm okay luckily, but I have trouble with my memory at times (have to carry a notebook and pen with me to write things down to help me remember) and I also have to relearn to use utensils because my current way is just odd. I want to feel less self-conscious and fit in better, so your video is helping. I'm having to watch it and rewatch it to learn.
Yes, you don't bring the knife to your mouth. ALSO you NEVER wave your knife and fork around: if you want to put them down while talking, drinking some wine etc, just lay them crossing the cutting/forking end and resting the handles on the plate, making an A shape. When you are finished, yes lay them parallel, but NOT the whole thing in the middle of the plate with the whole thing lying in the food! Instead, rest the handle ends over the edge of the plate. This is the UK way. Good luck!
I am most greatful that you took the time to mention that the waving of the silverware was a huge 'faux pas'. The attempt is daring but falls short of diving into the real etiquette, or 'Knigge' Rulebook as the Germans have a book about it. It is quite dated.
Nope dude this is the european mode! It’s good what you said! Also there is anither 4 sign! A plus sign mean you want the next Horizontal sign it was excellent (the fork and knife’s head watch in the right side) Vertical sign you are done And cross the fork and knife’s head it’s mean you not liked!
I am right hand dominant and I have always held my fork with my right hand while cutting with my knife using the left hand. Then I just eat with my right hand, there's no switching necessary. I have had one or two people ask me "Do you think it would be easier if you cut it with your right hand?" I didn't get what they were saying. I also have never ever taken a bite of food with the concave side of the fork facing downward the way it is in the video.
My dad was very strict at the dinner table. I use my utensils the way you do and if I "piled" food on my fork, I'd probably hear about it. We ate slowly.
Thanks for the video. I learned the European method growing up so it's very natural to me. It was mandatory in your household. Glad I learned it growing up. I learned to lay my cutlery 12 and 6 when done.
In Europe is actually common to switch the grip on the fork (still in your left hand) depending on whether you want to poke or shovel something. That is, among the working class. The idea of piling food onto the bumpy part of the fork seems ridiculously contrived, like most so called etiquette
Excellently demonstrated - table manners are so important - my children and many of their friends need to see this and follow your example. Many thanks
Thank you. I'm 60 and my husband has impeccable table manners thanks to his Martha Stewart Mother. JK. I how ever do not. Thank you for teaching me in a way that I can understand. I'm on a journey to growing old gracefully and leaving behind a legacy of elegance and peace.
good for you. I am a southeast asian and we use our hands to eat. our foods are usually wrapped with banana leaves. and there is a proper way for us to eat with our hands. chopsticks have a lot of rules too. you are not getting off easy.
Depends on the food. I think it would be very hard to eat a cake or a large steak with chopsticks, for example. And you would make a mess with your hands.
I've always cut my food and then set my knife down and changed hands with my fork to my right hand to eat. I've often wondered about the other way where you use your knife and fork at the same time. I'm going to give that a try. Thanks.
people don't want to see ill manners. and it is not just about eating is it? someone could take a huge dump in front of you while you are eating. if you are offended , would that be your problem?
And then there's people who act like if you wanna go all animal like "fine, ya wanna eat how you want, take off your clothes and sleep on the ground like a rat" like SERIOUSLY it's idiotic.
In Europe/Germany: 1) You may also flip the fork. 2) You should NOT put fork and knive in the center of the plate on 4/10 when you are done. You should let the handles rest on the side of the plate (maybe 2-4 cm looking over the side of the plate). It is much more easier for the servent to grap the plate when your tools are not shinkeling around in the center. And if you are doing your hosehold alone: it much more easier to clean all the stuff if the handles are not sucked with sauce ;)
Omg I laughed way too hard at this. And I totally agree. Going to Olive Garden and loudly demanding for the servant to refill your wine glass.... That's gonna create a tense atmosphere.
You do put it at 4, but she has misunderstood how you do it. You let the handles rest on the side of the plate, the knife and fork together with the knife at the buttom and the fork facing downwards to hold the knife in an upright position. (That way the silver gets the least amount of contact with whatever is on the plate).
Sparkle, two corrections. When you're not done, you're putting the knife and fork too far apart. When you ARE done, four o'clock is correc, but you do not put the knife and fork in the center of the plate. The handles should be resting on the edge of the plate sticking out on the side.
Thanks for posting this. This should be taught in US grade schools. Our table manners here have been on a downward spiral for years. And yes, people do judge you by your table manners, whether you like it or not.
yesssssss!! it's ridiculous how people eat nowadays, with their mouths open while chewing food, getting all their fingers dirty and licking them off one by one, smacking their lips while chewing.. etc etc.. it's disgusting. in other countries etiquette is taught at schools
Well her fork handling is meeee for Europen still it is more UK and only for soft things (like peas) the proper way is with the bow of the fork down so u can putt stuff on it without it falling down and never wave a knife like this that is really rude and doesn't bring it to the mouth as well oh and if u finished the meal the 🍴 belongs not in the center of the plate put them parallel at the edge at 6 or 16 o clock so the no body has to grip in a saucey Handel of a knife
@@shadowgamer1233 Who told you Indians wipe and eat with the same hands? The dominant hand is used for eating, while the other hand is the one used to wash the butthole. Another thing, Indian food is meant to be eaten by the 5 fingers. Indian foods are of a wide variety, it's technically not as simple as breads which could be cut by a knife and eaten with a fork. Lmao, educate yourself dude so that you won't embarrass yourself like this.
@@shadowgamer1233 We wipe it with a wet tissue first. Then use our left non-eating hand to wash it. That's why we use our cleaner right hands to eat. Talking about hygiene, you white people never wash your asses and walk around with sticky shit still left in your ass crack.
When finished eating, the knife and for are left at a 10 to 4 angle (tines up only though - never down!) but - the handles must overlap the side of the plate by a couple of inches....your utensils should not be left in the middle of the flat part of the plate.
the way we Americans use utensils is the old refined way, as in royalty( without the tossing of bones to the royal dogs.... lol just kidding,) at least that is how i understand it, It is a more formal method whereas keeping them in the hand and eating off the back would be considered a less formal way. and in my household growing up the wrong way to eat. in some households picking up anything with your fingers is considered bad manners, whereas in other households not picking up food is poor manners. lol miss manners back in the 80's and 90's attempted to set the record strait but.....i think people just like to argue.
Damn, dawg, not gonna lie, I was eatin' like a chimp. Tried to all indignant at the homie, but WOW. I goofed. Saved me some time, and I appreciate it. Good lookin', homie. ♥
I was brought up in a snobby English school and we were taught to never dip our heads when taking a bite but rather to mark a pause with the fork then place the moral in our mouths (this indicates delicateness and the fact that one has 'retenue' . We were also taught that when we were finished eating we should place the fork upside-down to display the name orning the back of the fork. I am not saying that there is only one way of doing things but this is strict British etiquette.
There are several errors there. It's proper to hold the utensils a lot higher up the stems. You're also not supposed to lower your head to eat, and yes lift the for up to your mouth, like an elevator. At the end, you lay the utensils with the stems laying on the 11 o'clock border of the plate with the utensil tips facing up and towards the center of the plate.
Well spotted! And she needs to control her elbows going up and down! The arms only move forward to reach the mouth, not sideways. I'm here as I was looking for a video to teach my friend, who eats as if he was operating the food. This one will not do but thanks anyway!
Interesting that in giving us some very helpful pointers about being classy and observing etiquette, our esteemed poresenter is commits a major etiquette faux-pas herself by gesticulating with her fork and knife as she speaks.
I'm right handed so I always have my knife in my right hand since I want to have more control over HOW I cut my food as I eat it. My fork stays in my left hand since it doesn't take much to simply raise the cut portion of whatever I'm eating from the plate to my mouth. I DO NOT SWITCH!!!
In Brazil, most people switch fork and knife too. The reason is that during most of the meal, we can keep an arm and hand down and have less movement. It's more discrete than just tossing the two all the time.
Yes! I find it so distracting eating with Europeans. They are always moving both hands holding utensils, creating a bunch of commotion. It’s difficult to ignore.
I combine the two methods. When eating something that can be stabbed with my fork I don't switch. When eating something that can be scooped I switch the fork to my right hand first after any cutting. Never thought to scoop anything on to the "back" of my fork.
You’ve got the best of both worlds although I think it’s pretty nifty to push the food onto the back of the fork if it will properly stay in place there.
Yes, if they are left handed, the process is reversed. The KNIFE is the working tool and that is used in the dominant hand. Both my parents are left handed and they eat "opposite" how all the siblings eat.
Thank you so much for this video. I am moving to the US this August and I got to eat with the American in my University. I am from India where we eat with our hands and this is something completely new to me.
if u feel most comfortable eating with your hands I say eat with your hands and forget what people think... it's America,afterall...land of the FREE...lol.. God bless🙏❤️
Didn't realize it was thought of as a "British Thing". I'm South African and this is basic etiquette taught in grade 1 (at the age of 6). 1. How to hold your cutlery. 2. Which knife/fork to use. 3. How to indicate whether you're done with your meal or not.
Duh if your not carefull or( if you've had too much to to drink)you could cut your lips off of your face then it would appendage removal 101.she must've been studying 16th century eating silverware rules before coming into the you tube channel set up.
The european way isn't really true, some have the fork faced down when we eat steak, but not when we eat something that doesnt cling to the fork. (atleast in sweden)
Why are people like this, who cares... I don't eat meat, so I rarely need a knife, and I'm glad with all these rules and people judging others based on how they hold a knife and a fork. Really silly
Well they thought u were a peasants using a fork like that man if I had eaten with her In a nice restaurant I would be ashamed to the ground because of many really rude things in her "Europen way" in private I would have shown her it the right way at least for Germany in general we have a book called "Knigge" that is up to date and is filled with rules of good meaners but only the basics a commonly known I personally try to apply them to my life and I get same times "ohh a true Gentleman" for it but it is not very often
I'm right handed and always use the fork in my right hand and the knife in the left, no switching back and forth. Very effective for me. Not American nor European style. Fork pointed up or down for efficiency. I guess that would be very confusing for someone trying to "nail" my nationality. I'm a tool guy and silverware are tools !
Although she is holding the cutlery correctly, there are errors in this. NEVER raise the knife to the mouth. Never push food on top of the fork (unless its squishy like peas) always push the fork into the cut up food. When finished you lay the knife and fork in front of you i.e. 12 to 6 with both handles resting on the side of the plate. NEVER leave the cutlery completely lying in the plate, whoever clears the plate then has to get their hands covered in cold muck picking them up. Using cutlery correctly should not be considered POSH it should be used correctly by everyone everywhere. This also applies to chopsticks etc.
I did not understand her explanation of using fork as a spoon (piling food on top of the fork and this way in the mouth?) How does work with real food? May be, i just don't have imagination or manners.
you don't stab the food in american style as this can cause the food to stick to fork; you would then have to use the knife to push the food off, put the knife down and change the fork to the other hand
I remember my dad telling me as a kid the Europeans don't switch forks (he's Canadian and spent a lot of time in Europe) so now I've gotten used to it and like to be a bit fancy when eating out
I have the fork in my right hand and the knife in the left hand. I see little reason beyond upper-class snobbyness to use the other, for me, wrong hands. I mean why are we supposed to use those hands anyway? It's probably beacuse of those French.
Na more of an really old thing at the start of the bronze age the right hand was for eating and the left for cleaning the butt after the "Meating" and religions picked it up and carried it over the time in India it is the same (they eat mostly with hands only) as back 5000 B.C. And the other stuff evolved around the fact so that Why there a more right handed persons on earth and as possible the more dangerous tool the knife belongs in the more skilled hand (especially when learning to eat with fork and knife) knifes back than there by fare sharper than thes butter knifes we use widely in the western world
I am so relieved that she said it was okay to use a fork and knife the American way; especially, since I am a Canadian born in the Netherlands. I cannot imagine shoving my food onto the back of my fork and carefully lifting it up to my mouth. I eat way too fast for that to be pretty :).
You DON'T cut your rice with a knife... :p But seriously, I grew up in the Philippines. In the rural areas mostly, we eat with our hands. Otherwise we use spoon. It's also amazing in Japan, China, Thailand and other asian countries, they use chopsticks. Only in Europe that I've really learned to eat (rice) with a fork (with my left hand since we use the right for the knife) Yes, it is easy!
I watched your presentation. I'm Not European. I will continue to use the upside of my fork Continental style. As long as person is neat and graceful while eating...who CARES which side of the utensil you use. Foreigners can be snobs towards Americans. Do your thing. Always an Authority that Needs to forces his or hers beliefs on others. Be thankful you have food to put into your hungry belly. Millions of people that go hungry on daily level all over the World. We have more dire issues to worry about, other than using metal or plastic utensil.
You do NOT put your utensils all the way on the plate at the end of your meal. EW! The handles should be on the edge of the plate so the waitperson can pick them to stack plates if need be. Also my British and European friends do not slide food onto the back of the fork, if they can't spear it with the fork to eat it that way,, they do turn the fork so they can scoop the food up.
My British friends do the back of the fork, freaks me out, what do they think? the fork has a bend to scoop food. It looks like they have a pitchfork in their hands. The rest of Europe eats with the tines up. Never have I seen it anywhere else but Britain.
Continental European way is upside down for anything that needs to be cut like meat. And turning the fork otherwise to make use of the curvature. Not sure if you meant that.
I think the point of etiquette is not being messy, i.e. reduce the risk of food falling off the fork. And also show as little effort as possible in eating. Moving the knife and fork together towards the mouth doesn't look safe. It looks like the diner is trying to shovel the food in. Also piling on different foods on top of the inverted fork is also asking for trouble. I think she married the wrong kind of British man. ;) Also various videos from different "experts" have different information. I think I'll have to make my own video to set Western Civilization straight.
+Louis Emery You don't move the knife and fork towards your mouth - the knife remains pointing towards the plate while the fork places food in the mouth. Neither do you chew with your mouth open as Americans seem to favour. I'm afraid that the American style of eating is sloppy. Often wondered if table knives didn't survive the voyage on the Mayflower! :-)
Louis Emery what nonsense, Europeans have managed to eat the correct way for hundreds of years with no problems, Americans are still just backwards in comparison, you’ll catch up one day!
0:57 Lady, I'm from Australia, the last thing we care about is manners, etiquette or impressing others and we still use the European way We dine this way not because we're trying to "pull out all our fun little classy manners" but because it's a lot less buggering around as you're not constantly chopping and changing your utensils Also cutting up a meal and then using just the fork is how you feed a child, as adults we don't want to feel like children when eating a meal or hear "Here comes the aeroplane"
