What Our Utensil Designs Say About Our Culture 

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Using 2 forks as chopsticks is ultimate power flex

As a Filipino it's kinda weird to think of people eating rice with chopsticks or fork as it could easily fall off. Thus we use spoon to get more rice at once and it doesn't fall off.

Let’s be honest. The most versatile utensil, is the spoon. It’s that support item you always get no matter what build you go for.

"Don't skip! Don't skip! Don't skip! Don't skip!" *Proceeds to skip entire advert.*

Something that isn't brought up as well is that chopsticks aren't really for bringing food long distances, Asian traditions often involve bringing one's bowl to the face while eating instead of letting it rest on the table in Western tradition, as it is considered bad manners to have to stoop down to your bowl like a dog, and because picking up the bowl automatically straightens your posture. There are also similar rules that some people enforce like elbows off the table.

Not only are eating utensils shaped by our food, but our food is probably also shaped by our eating utensils. So many dishes in one culture would be really hard to eat with another tool than the one that culture uses to eat. So the food and the eating utensils seem to adapt to each other over time and not just one to the other. Which would make the introduction of a new way to eat even harder since the food being eaten is already designed to be consumed with another tool in mind.

As a Malaysian person growing up a culture that’s a blend of Malay, Chinese, Indian and western, i am adept at using hands, chopsticks and fork+knife! It’s cool to be able to use all of them and enjoy different cuisines, and eating them the way it was intended adds to the experience

As an Asian, it's really hard for me to imagine eating any food without chopsticks. Although my fingers do hurt when pinching some big food lol but chopsticks can prevent the food from escaping. I can't catch any food at all with just a spoon or a fork. I even use chopsticks when eating chips. Just the right amount of force to never ruin the food and at the same time your hands are still clean!

I think in your comparison you didn't really acknowledge that one can use a fork without using a knife with many dishes. When you pick up fries they may give you a tiny fork but no knife. And many other classic italian or european dishes, such as pasta, do not requite a knife at all

Very Interesting! In India, we believe that eating with your hand (most of us use only one hand) allows us to experience the food through the sense of touch before we consume it. It prepares your system for the food that is about to enter your mouth. It also helps you judge if the food is too hot or cold and avoid burning your tongue. The practice also ensures we wash our hands more often and before and after every meal which promotes hygiene. And of course, it is the most sustainable way to eat.

I've lived in both the American and the Asian continents, so all I can say, having studied different cultures, is: specific utensils are meant for specific types of food, so there's no universal "the fork is better" or "chopsticks are better". Burritos are meant to be eaten with your hands, so trying to use either forks or chopsticks wouldn't be as practical as just grabbing the burrito with your hand. If you get a Western steak, of course using fork and knife would work better, but East Asian food, as mentioned in the video, usually comes already cut in small pieces, so using chopsticks is usually easier. Moreover, utensils are adapted to specific tasks and cultures. For example, chopsticks are different in China, Japan and Korea. Chinese people many times put a big plate in the center of the table and people serve themselves to their plates, so longer chopsticks are useful. Japanese people don't do that, so their chopsticks are shorter; they eat more fish, so their chopsticks taper and are more pointy so it's easier to grab raw fish with them. Korean chopsticks are flat and usually made of metal, because in ancient times they were believed to detect poison easier than wooden chopsticks. In many South East Asian countries, having their local cultures influenced by China and Western colonization, you'll se that, for example, rice usually comes with a spoon (not fork), while noodles are considered a Chinese thing, so they come with chopsticks. I currently live in Taiwan where, just like in China, if you order "noodles" they will give you chopsticks by default, but if you order "Italian noodles" (i.e. spaghetti) they'll give you a fork. Of course, you can actually use etiher utensil because it's basically the same food, but utensils are culturally asociated to either Asian or Western origin. Furthermore, combining utensils is becoming increasingly popular in Asia. For example, if you get let's say a curry rice with a pork cutlet, it may come with chopsticks AND a spoon, so you use one hand to grab the pork pieces with the chopsticks, while getting the rice with the spoon in your other hand. This is specially common with noodle soups, of course: one hand with the chopsticks for the noodles and the other hand with the spoon for the soup.

Another aspect of the forks vs. chopsticks debate is the typical application of both utensils. Forks puncture the piece of food while chopsticks simply pick it up. Forks can interfere with the structural integrity of the item (e.g. sushi, layered foods, etc) or cause some loss of moisture (losing the soup inside a soup dumpling, applying pressure on pieces of meat, letting the juice dribble out, etc.) while chopsticks don't run into these issues because the user only applies pressure to the sides of the item.

The feedback loop between utensiles evolving to suit popular dishes and dishes being crafted to be eaten with the culture's standard utensiles is fascinating. While this isn't really a problem in the case of food, I imagine there must be situations where someone has come up with a new, more optimal solution for a problem, but there are too many tools and systems built to work with the old, clunky solution for anyone to change it.

My go-to example of a food that's easier to eat with chopsticks is sushi. A fork would destroy the roll, but just picking it up with chopsticks is perfect. Although personally, my favorite utensil is the spoon. Simple, intuitive, and as far as I know, universal.

I've seen many people including myself who are used to forks struggle with chopsticks. I've never seen someone used to chopsticks ever struggle with a fork. This could either be cause chopsticks are harder to use or forks are so much more widespread due to a factor other than ease that everyone couldn't avoid getting accustomed to it.

I saw a theory that chopsticks were preferred because Asian cultures didn't like the idea of putting metal implements in the mouth. I believed it until I visited S Korea, where metal chopsticks were the only type available in every restaurant I went to. The Japanese word for 'chopstick' looks identical to the word for 'bridge' in romanised Japanese, but it has a different kanji, and is pronounced slightly differently. Japanese isn't a tonal language, but there is a difference in where the stress comes in each word. It's hard for an English speaker to pin down the difference, but if you get it wrong, it sounds weird to Japanese ears.

In Zulu culture (I'm from South Africa). When eating with people in the same bowl we use two hands, however they serve two different functions. Say you are eating baked beans for example, one hand will be used to pickup food from the bowl then you'll pour your food to the other hand, which will be used to take food to the mouth. The hand that takes food to the mouth doesn't come in contact with the bowl and the hand that takes food from the bowl doesn't come in contact with the mouth. This rarely happens now because spoons are popular and everyone uses their own bowl.

I think I have to disagree that chopsticks forces you to eat slowly, to me at least it makes me eat faster. My family is japanese so we have a lot of small bowls, when eating with them we tend to pick up them with our left hand and use the chopsticks with the right, this way we can lift the bowl and basically eat faster. Also if take ramen for example, it meant to be eaten in around 10min max or the noodles will get soggy

As an Indian I've grown up using hands/fingers to eat. During my young adulthood I also have heavily used spoons while living away from home. After some time, what I discovered is that, if the food is not desirable to me and I just somehow have to eat it, I'll mostly pick a spoon to eat instead using hands. Using a spoon for me meant detachment to the food. I always wondered about an interesting research idea studying amount of food waste in places like Hostel Mess, while using hands vs spoons. (the detachment hypothesis)

I think one thing people often overlook with chopsticks is the bowl that it is paired with. Often, when we eat rice from a bowl, we don't pick up the rice with our chopsticks (though with sticky-enough rice it is easy to do), but rather we put the bowl of rice to our face and shovel it in with the chopsticks. In those instances, the bowl is also a utensil. It's more often seen in Chinese communal meals where the bowls are small enough to be easily held, and the chopsticks serve a dual purpose of grabbing meats and veggies from the plates into your own bowl as well. For myself, I often find myself resorting to the spoon when it comes to Japanese dons, as those bowls are a bit too big and unwieldy to hold with one hand. Sometimes, if rice dishes are served on a plate like with Thai rice or Japanese curry rice, or if it's fried rice, I also use a spoon. On the other hand, I like eating spaghetti with chopsticks, just to piss off the Italians. Use chopsticks to avoid Cheeto fingers. In fact, you can use chopsticks for all sorts of chips. You're welcome.

Idk, I must be a master at using a fork. It can shovel anything except for soup or cereal if I cared about having milk with every bite. Never once had a problem with rice, yogurt, grits/polenta, ice cream etc. Rice in a bowl with a fork is like shooting a fish barrel with a shotgun. Using the side of the fork and you can cut most things aside from tough beef and pork. It is 98% effective for most things.

Spork all the way

I'm from Moldova, and traditionally, you'd have mamaliga, which is a type of polenta that is really sticky, with every meal. You'd just use it as a grab and dip tool for all the side dishes. We eat it on occasion now, and it is the most fun you can have eating. It also tastes better because you have a more intimate connection with the food you're eating. So I agree with you that your hands are the best tool.

The best utensil really depends on the food and the situation, but I’d say both forks and chopsticks can be often be substituted for one another. I’ve lived in Thailand and Korea. My preferred method for eating rice dishes is actually a fork and a spoon, pushing the rice onto my spoon using my fork. My preferred method for noodle dishes is chopsticks. I actually have no idea how people eat ramen without chopsticks. Watching Korean kids, it’s easier for them to master using a fork first and then graduate to chopsticks. I’ve seen Korean adults use chopsticks for Western foods at times, I think it depends on what you’re used to and what’s available also.

As an Asian, the best thing about chopsticks is that it's all we need. We can eat anything with it, including the thinnest soup. At some point I stopped using spoon. As for forks... I only use them when it's situationally awkward to use chopsticks. Like when I eat noodle pasta, cake, fried chicken. Or when it's necessary to use knives like when eating steaks(most of the times when we eat meat, we chop it up while cooking so we don't have to do the process during the meal).

I’ll be honest, eating with hands feels great too. I taste the food better, the fingers feel more confortable than metal cutlery, and you sort of taste the saltiness of your skin as you eat, which in a way helps add to its flavor… I also agree with Nainesh. You’re prompted to wash hands more often.

Your channel is really great, at least because you make me, a backend developer watch videos about the design and philosophy behind all of this stuff. Great job, I was searching the videos about scrum methodology but tucked in your channel for a couple of hours.

As indonesia, asians are not just people who use chopsticks. Western and American countries need to improve their geography curriculum standards

Chopsticks also work far better for foods originating in East Asia as its usually more broken down while forks for western food which are usually kept in bigger pieces. Try eating a sirloin with a side of asparagus using chopsticks

I'm not a designer but I love watching these design videos!

5:45 Love that this was missed in your proofreading and that you actually said it out loud without skipping a beat.

As a single Viet (look at my last name löl), I can use 1 pair of chopstick to stir my rice pot, make scramble eggs, mix stuffs in a bowl or a pot & then eat with that same pair of chopstick. It‘s so quick, versatile & practical.

As someone who lives in a major cosmopolitan city, my philosophy is "do as the Romans", chopsticks at East Asian restaurants, hands at South Asian restaurants, fork and knife at Western restaurants. However, I do prefer eating rice at home with a spoon, even though I'm Chinese.

I mean, the Rice with Fork thing really depends on the type of Rice. I'm personally used to eating rice with fork and knife, but I also usually eat the long-grain variant. Though maybe I should start trolling in eating habits and eat western food with chopsticks and eastern food with knife and fork.

I always had rice with a spoon because it was the most practical. I lived in Taiwan for a while and I still think the fork is a better option. I see how much easier chop sticks are but they can’t be used for all foods whereas forks can. They can also be used as a knife so they serve multiple purposes.

I really like this video This is the first video of yours I've ever seen. I'm now a subscriber thank you so much for this content.

On the topic of using the right utensil for the right cuisine, I once watched a table of Asian tourists in Italy slurp their way through a plate of pasta with chopsticks they had brought with them. The huge sauce donuts around their mouths almost had me choking.

Fantastic video! You always bring so many great points to an, in this case, very ordinary thing! One quick and friendly tip for editing would be to change the sequence settings to the same fps as your main sequence before doing the scene edit detection, that way you eliminate those single frames that sometimes shows up of the next scene before the cut. Love your videos so this is coming from nothing but love:)

I know it may sound rediculous but I don't skip ads while watching the videos on this channel as the content is so well worked through that it's my way of showing respect to the dedication of the author (I know that ads mean a lot in terms developing of the channel). Thank you for analyzing so much information and presenting it in such a pleasant way, Design Theory.

Coming from Indonesia (South East Asia), we actually normally use all of them (Spoon+Fork, Chopsticks, and Hands) Normally, we eat rice with Spoon+fork But when eating Mie Ayam (chicken noodles) street food, we use chopstick (Except for when eating instant noodles that cooked at home, usually use fork because chopstick rarely found in middle-poor people house) Then when eating rice with curry like food (Rendang, Kare etc) especially food from Sumatra island We usually eat with hands --- If traced from history, Indonesia was a place where people from east meet the west for trading by sea, India and China And Indonesia (before indonesia independence) got colonized by the Dutch, mainly in Java island for 350 years And because of this, all the culture can be found here Rendang is long siblings of curry, and curry is originates from India... We usually eat those with hands Mie Ayam, literally chicken noodles which is originates from China... we usually eat those with chopsticks (Theres actually many food that originates from India and China, but i only focus on these two) While the soto any many others are originates from Indonesia.... But the way and how we eat using Spoon and Fork culture are from the Dutch

In Peru, half of our dishes include rice, we use forks, it is the normal thing, opposite of what you say, we don't imagine chasing rice grains with two thin sticks. Nice video, cheers

Halfway through the video and all I can think is that the spoon is the superior utensil.

Here in Hong Kong, we are very versatile in picking and combining different eating utensils to suit how the food is presented. In Cha Chaan Teng (a unique Hong Kong style eateries which provide localized foreign cusines). Dinners can pick any combination of knife, fork, spoon and chopsticks.

I eat nearly everything with chopsticks and a bowl-even fried chicken, pasta, pizza, and chips. I have a strong aversion to getting my hands dirty while eating, though, and I find that chopsticks give me the most dexterity when handling food, making it easy to rotate food as I need to (as with fried chicken or peeling shrimp with my mouth).

Obviously the most civilized way to eat is to vacuum the food into your mouth like a cartoon character.

I saw a documentary about Victorian customs and how they helped popularize the modern fork. They wanted to feel civilized and remove any trace of our “animal roots”. They thought biting directly into food, leaving teeth marks, was too animalistic so they used forks and knives instead to cut pieces off and then have all the dirty work done behind closed mouths.

Out of curiosity, how did comparing the sponser to toilet workout for you? Also, as an Indian, I appreciate you talking about my culture and the way I eat my food. Loving your channel 😍

As an European, one of my favourite uses of chopsticks is when earing potato chips or some other greasy snack when I'm at my comouter or something. It's super practical!

I only found your channel a few weeks ago, but it‘s already one of my absolute favorites! Keep it up! Product Design is everywhere and this video shows that in a creative way!

The Spoon handles most stuff, a metal spoon can also cut (like a piece of cake).

An underappreciated contender to the utensil game is the straw. Rigid enough straws can be used as chopsticks while also being able to bring liquids to your mouth without needing to rely on moving the bowl or a side spoon I have a soft spot for the spork as well, beautiful little misfit

Hands master race 😤 Actually, I'm used to using all three. If I'm eating rice, paratha, idiyappam, bread, macaroni, tortillas obviously hands (and for most other things), but if I'm eating noodles, dumplings, momos, sushi or anything small enough to be eaten without cutting it first (i.e. bite-sized) I use chopsticks (which is what they're meant to be used for). If I'm eating anything large that needs cutting like steak or omelette or waffles etc I use a knife and fork.

In Chinese restaurants there is no serving spoon. Guests will have 2 pairs of chopsticks. One pair is to grab food from the dishes to your “plate” and the white one to eat the food. Even with one pair, you are supposed to reverse your chopsticks when grabbing the food so you keep the end with your saliva off the dishes.

Once again, great video! I understand and agree with the idea that designing for the way people actually think is better if you want to sell a product but i think there is a lot more nuance in this case - design and culture work together in my opinion. People dictate what products sell by buying them but the designs we put out also dictate what people buy and therefore would change their behavior. A very well known example is smartphones. 10 years ago we might have thought people would not adopt this type of device but in 2022 it is part of everything we do !

I chose not to skip the ad because I genuinely laughed out loud at that transition, keep up the good work

bro didn’t even mention the straw

Gotta say that chopstick is also a cooking utensil. Use it to stir noodles around while cooking and you will have one less thing to wash. Forks might scratch the non-stick layer.

I find chopsticks to be more convenient in the sense that I can do more with chopsticks like picking up small pieces of food or lifting food securely without having to pierce it. Also I have lost count of how many times I improvised using two skewers or small sticks as chopsticks to help me move food (and some other stuff).

as a British person who grew up in both the UK and then Malaysia, I went from using a fork and knife to using a fork and spoon the malaysian way as it’s far better for almost all dishes (bar steak). My favourite combo now is a spoon and japanese-style pointed chopsticks even for foods like salads or pasta. Somehow it feels like the food is more aerated.

Loved it, awesome video as always ❤️.

I think hands are more limited than something like a fork since you can’t really eat hot food. Although I guess you can build up a resistance

Wolfing down with chopsticks also works great. Just use the two parallel sticks as a lifting platform. 🙂

Designs for the culture as it is, not what you wish it is. This quote really need to knock into the brains of current Disney

A hand is just a 3 pronged fork with chopsticks on either end, if you think about it.

Eating with forks, chopsticks, and hands are all good. But the one not mentioned on the video is the most superior, the spoon. A good metal spoon works with everything from soups, to pies, sauces, rice, meat, everything. When I eat out I'll use a fork. When I went I used chopsticks. 98% of the time I eat at home, I go with the spoon. It's just better.

As westernized and easternized person I eat with fork for western food, with chopstick for oriental asian food, and with bare hand for middle eastern food.

honestly, it feels like forks are way more intuitive to use (as in, you dont see people googling how to use a fork) but chopsticks are SUPER versitile (can be used as a bunch of other utensils)

It is related more to the food and habit than anything else. There are certain cultures that eat almost everything with their hands. Try eating a steak with bare hands or chopsticks. Try eating sushi with a fork. Dips and curries sometimes have to be eaten with bread and no other utensil.

Chopsticks are easier to cook with as well as a general great tool for food prep.

Another fantastic video. I appreciate your content

I prefer chopsticks because they're basically two long proxy fingers. I have more control when picking up the food without dirtying my fingers. Stabbing the food with the fork (tho I can do that with chopsticks as well) might ruin the shape and they might roll away when you try scooping it.

Well i use my hand to eat rice and chapati , spoons and fork for different food items, and also chopsticks 🥢 as well for ramen 🍜 but never used knife because i rather use my hand 😅 i believe it doesn't matter what you use to pick your food. Tools are made to make things easy, not to confuse. So eat your food with your hand, spoons, 🍽 fork or chopsticks or whatever you find easy or like. Thanks & Love from India 🇮🇳

I grew up in the US hand after spending 18 months in Korea I have very little use for either small spoons or forks. Unless I’m eating a steak or pasta a big spoon or chopsticks works best for most foods.

I agree with you about the burrito, especially the breakfast burrito! I love your channel.

It eases my weary heart to know that my ancestors were eating burritos 12,000 years ago.

" Try eating rice with a fork" still easier with a fork, and with the added bonus that your rice doesn't have to be clumped together for it to work. Many cultures around outside of east asia eat plenty of rice with forks and it works perfectly, not awkward at all.

Honestly, just use any utensils that makes you happy. Be glad that we are open for choices without any stigma. 😉

Here is the real revolution: the spork-a spoon and fork combination. In the world of incarnations, sporks are the norm, whether camping, RVing, or attending sports events.

I skipped the moment you said "don't skip" and I rewind just to see what's up. I think you cracked it mate.

I think sometimes it depends on the cook style of the food even if it’s the same staples. Like for example, I prefer to eat long noodles that can be slurped with chopsticks. But for cut-up noodles, (gaps!) I rather use a fork since picking the short noodles is just more convenient. Spoons also matter on this as I prefer to use Chinese spoons for soups, but western spoons for flat dishes like fried rice It’s gotten to the point that I frustrate my dad on my preferred cutlery since I’m very picky in this sort of thing. But I don’t want to hear that from him since he eats spaghetti with chopsticks

3:15 "Alright, don't skip, Don't skip, th- DON'T SKIP!! " me : Okay, okayyy... Jeez, I wouldn't skip 😂

Good job! I ALMOST didn't skip the sponsor ad

I didn’t know how fascinating eating utensils could be. Excellent video, I feel refreshed.

It is motally correct to actively judge people that dont wash hands before eat and after toilet. ESPESHILLY if they going from toilet to eat. (sorry for bad English)

love that conclusion.. the burrito is best food ever invented ❤

Growing up, we had a rice and meat dish we would serve in a bread bowl. The extra bread removed to make the bowl got roasted for croutons another day. We would cut a couple onions into 4, soak them in water, then use those wedges as our spoons. In the end, no dishes to wash, and everything added flavor to the meal. It was a great experience.

My favorite thing about this entire conversation is that even before any of this, pasta was invented by Arabs after being introduced to noodles by the Chinese. They didn't have all the ingredients to make noodles so they made a variation and in turn they introduced that variation to the Italians as they interacted for commerce just as Arabs had interacted with the Chinese first. Then the Italians ran with it and turned it into something else entirely with cheese and meats and other things in their culture that we all know and love today. That's just one example of many of how cultural interactions drive innovations and ingenuity and as a result, we all benefit.

Personally, I think a spoon is the best way to eat rice (if you can properly use chopsticks then use them obviously, but I struggle). But honestly its just great being able to have forks, spoons, knives and chopsticks to choose from, depending on what you're eating

I love chopsticks, they're also very useful in cooking because they can both pick things up and stab things. It's like learning to write with pencil, learn it once and the muscle memory is always there

Those are some of the most appetizing food shots I've ever seen

Spoon for cereal, fork and knife for steak, hands for cawfish boils, spoon and chopsticks for pho, fork for pasta, etc. Sometimes things are more practical but certain dishes are better with certain utensils. When you try different eating etiquette you get to really enjoy the food and taste it as it is supposed to be.

This was a cool lens as a designer myself. Personally I think chopsticks are the best tool. I really dislike the grating sound of metal on plates, and chopsticks are so unobtrusive and elegant and easy to clean. With chopsticks you can eat just about anything and it's super handy for standing in for other cooking utensils like whisks or wooden spoons. I wish more than just Asian restaurants offered chopsticks

Forks when im lazy. Chopsticks when I want to show off lol

"don't skip, don't skip!!" you're the reason sponsorblock exists

I use different things depending on what the food is 😂 a spoon is great for soup and small things like rice (our rice isn’t sticky so it’s hard to eat with such things like chop sticks) A fork is great for pasta like stuff, but also a fork and knife is great for large foods needing to be diced, like steak or parmigiana. I only use chopsticks when eating noodles, or any sort of stir fry. I don’t always have chopsticks at home so it’s mostly when I go to an East Asian restaurant. And lastly hands. As a Turk hands are our most used utensil. We love eating things with bread and using the bread as our utensil. However, as I’ve been saying, not all things CAN be eaten with your hands. So it’s mostly when I eat stuff like kebabs, bbq meat, eggs, and a bunch of Turkish traditional food. There’s also sporks but… idk… I haven’t used one in years 😂 I think the last time was when I went to a noodle place and they handed us as spork instead of chopsticks.

Chopsticks can manipulate foods without destroying their forms, which is very nice when eating hard foods that crumble or wrapped foods that fall apart when punctured. Forks, I personally find them best for eating meats, but there's not much a fork can do that a pair of chopsticks or a knife can't. A pair of chopsticks can wrap noodles fairly easily, and a knife can spear food on it. The utensil that I find most enjoyable though is the spoon, you can eat so quickly with a spoon as long as everything in your bowl can be chewed.

All the benefits of chopsticks compared to the knife implies your food had already been cut with knife before served... 😅

I agree eating with your hands is the best. Feels weird at first because you feel like your hand is dirty during the whole meal but after you get over that feeling the food does taste better

As an American who uses chopsticks on a very regular basis, I find forks to be more versatile for eating, but chopsticks to be more versatile for cooking, and *much* easier to clean. They both have their uses.