Vocal Voices

I love cooking, I love entertaining, and I often watch Come Dine with me on TV.. I am amazed how few individuals (including celebrities) know how to hold and use a knife and fork in the correct manner....

It is interesting to watch Americans. They will cut meat using the knife and fork as we do. Then they will put the knife down and transfer the fork to their right hand and put the piece of meat into their mouth with the fork.
I was taught at a very early age, that if you are at a posh restaurant and there are several knives on one side and a similar number of forks on the other, you start at the outside and work inwards.

cruiser2 wrote:It is interesting to watch Americans. They will cut meat using the knife and fork as we do. Then they will put the knife down and transfer the fork to their right hand and put the piece of meat into their mouth with the fork.

S and L eat like that. It infuriates me and causes lots of arguments at the table.

It doesn't come from us as they were taught to use a knife and fork properly - it must be something they pick up at school.

Table manners were drilled into my sister and I when we were little and have stayed with me. Bad table manners is one of my pet hates.

Being left-handed I have my own etiquette.

Knives and forks are laid out the same as for a right-hander, but that is because of the nuns at primary school and their short canes. Smack! - eat properly or don't eat at all. Cups and glasses, however, are placed on the left and spoon handles always face left.

I do not like to see people using their forks spoon-like with the tines turned up or using spoons with a full overhand grip.

debih wrote:

cruiser2 wrote:It is interesting to watch Americans. They will cut meat using the knife and fork as we do. Then they will put the knife down and transfer the fork to their right hand and put the piece of meat into their mouth with the fork.

S and L eat like that. It infuriates me and causes lots of arguments at the table.

It doesn't come from us as they were taught to use a knife and fork properly - it must be something they pick up at school.

Table manners were drilled into my sister and I when we were little and have stayed with me. Bad table manners is one of my pet hates.

Substitute B and H for S and L, and I could have written that! Snap Debih

Have we got a full house if we add in Tom and Joe?

Americans use their knives and forks differently because in the early colonial days there
was a shortage of steel in America, and knives were in very short supply. Consequently
the communal family knife was passed round the table for everyone to cut their meat into
manageable pieces, after which just forks were used. (That's your lesson for today.)

What surprises me lately is the way many younger folk hold a pen or pencil when writing.
We were taught to hold it between the thumb and the two adjacent fingers, with the index
finger pointing at the mark we were making - not as if we were holding a cricket bat.

I'm just the same as regards table manners, and eldest does the American thing too But at least eats neatly, which is better than some.

I agree Aggers about the writing, it's appalling, are they not taught how to hold a pen??? People in all sorts of jobs do still need to be able to write, and others to be able to read it!

Kaz wrote:

debih wrote:

cruiser2 wrote:It is interesting to watch Americans. They will cut meat using the knife and fork as we do. Then they will put the knife down and transfer the fork to their right hand and put the piece of meat into their mouth with the fork.

S and L eat like that. It infuriates me and causes lots of arguments at the table.

It doesn't come from us as they were taught to use a knife and fork properly - it must be something they pick up at school.

Table manners were drilled into my sister and I when we were little and have stayed with me. Bad table manners is one of my pet hates.

Substitute B and H for S and L, and I could have written that! Snap Debih

Oh...




In my defence my American cousins came for an extended visit during a formative period in my young life.

Call me a cynic Di but I feel they are taught very little, other than how to pass the tick box tests schools are centred around these days

Mine eat beautifully the old fashioned way way when we are out - or else