How to Use a Knife and Fork When Eating

You can eat like a primeval hunter with a knife and fork easily on a casual occasion. However, at a dinner party, when dining at a restaurant or on a formal occasion, you should know how to use this tableware properly. You can use European (also known as Continental) or American style cutlery. ^{[1] X Research Source} Read this article to see which style you prefer?

Table of Contents

European (Continental)

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The fork is always to the left of the plate and the knife is to the right. If there are multiple forks, the outer fork is the salad fork and the inner fork is for the main course. The main dish fork will be larger than the salad fork.

We will learn more about dining table layout later. This part will focus only on how to hold a knife and fork while eating! To help you really use them.

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To cut food on a plate into small pieces, you hold a knife with your right hand. The index finger is almost straight and placed on the upper part of the blade. The remaining four fingers hold the knife handle tightly. ^{[2] X Research Source} When the index finger is on the top of the blade, the thumb is on the side. The end of the handle will be in the palm of your hand.

This knife grip is similar in both styles. Instructions for use for both models are for right-handed people. If you are left-handed, do the opposite of the instructions in this article.

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Hold the fork in your left hand. The tip of the fork is facing down. ^{[3] X Source of Study} The index finger is straight and placed on the back, near the tip of the fork but not too close to the food. The remaining four fingers will hold around the handle.

This is often referred to as the “hidden rolling” method. Because your hand almost covers the entire handle, making it invisible.

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Bend your wrist so that your index finger points below the disc. This causes the tip of the knife and fork to point down the plate. Your elbows should now be relaxed and not pointing up or feeling uncomfortable. ^{[4] X Research Sources}

When eating, usually your elbows are not resting on you. However, when you want to stop eating, and in the usual context, you don’t need to worry about where to put your elbows.

Hold the food on the plate by applying force with the index finger. When cutting, place the knife near the fork and move the blade to cut food into small pieces. Soft foods like pasta need to be cut lightly, but with meat you’ll need more effort. Usually, only 1 or 2 pieces should be cut at a time.

Hold the fork so that the tip of the fork is curved toward you, and the knife is slightly farther away from you than the fork. You can also set the cutlery at an angle as long as you can see the knife clearly to see where you are cutting. You should see both the knife and fork clearly.

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Use a fork to take a small sample of food and put it in your mouth. In this way, bring food to your mouth with a fork with the fork ends facing down and the back of the fork facing up

Hold the fork in your left hand, even if you are right-handed. You will find this way more effective after trying both methods mentioned in this article.

American style

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When cutting, hold the fork in the left hand. Unlike the Continental style, the American style holds the fork as if holding a pen. The handle will be between the thumb and index finger, the middle finger and the thumb will fix the handle. The tip of the fork is facing down, curved forward.

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When cutting, hold the knife with your right hand. ^{[5] X Source of Study} The handle of the knife is similar to that of the European style — with the index finger on the top of the knife and the rest of the fingers holding the knife.

Cut food. Hold food with the tip of the fork (fork tip facing down), cut the food by moving the blade up and down. The fork should be closer to you than the knife. Only cut 1 or 2 pieces before continuing.

Now change hands. Here’s the difference between the two styles: after cutting a piece of food, you put the knife down on the edge of the plate (blade at 12 o’clock, handle at 3 o’clock) and switch the fork from left hand to right hand . Rotate so the tip of the fork is facing up with a piece of food! ^{[6] X Research Source} That’s it.

This was the common practice when the Americas were first formed. Europeans also used this method, but over time, people have used it more effectively. Although this shift did not extend far beyond mainland Europe, it was still influential in some places.

Rules on the dining table

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Understand table setting rules. Westerners use knives, forks and spoons for 95% of their meals. However, in luxury events, you will see more tables on the table and not understand what you are going to do with them. Here are some basic principles:

The arrangement with 4 things includes: 1 knife, 1 salad fork, 1 main dish fork, 1 main dish knife and 1 coffee spoon. The salad fork will be the outermost and smaller than the main dish fork.
The arrangement with 5 things includes all of the above and 1 soup spoon. The soup spoon will be bigger than the coffee spoon.
Arrangement with 6 items including appetizer knife and fork (outermost), main dish knife and fork, dessert/salad fork and the smallest coffee spoon.
The arrangement with 7 things includes all of the above and 1 soup spoon. Do not use a knife or fork to eat soup and the soup spoon will be larger than the coffee spoon.
- If you see a small fork on the right side (the fork is usually not on the right side), it’s a oyster fork.
- Eating utensils are usually arranged according to the needs of use. If you’re wondering, just try starting from the outermost and you’ll understand how to use it. ^{[7] X Research Sources}

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If you want to pause while eating, put the cutlery in the position with the meaning of pause. There are 2 ways to order cutlery to serve to understand that you have not finished eating:

European style: Place knife blade and fork tip diagonally on a plate, fork resting on knife, fork tip facing down. This position will create an upside down “V” shape.
American style: Place knife on top edge of disc, blade at 12 o’clock, handle at 3 o’clock. Place the fork near you and position it so that the tip of the fork is facing up.

When you have finished eating, place the cutlery in the finished position. This lets the server know they can clear your plate (if they understand that rule). Again, this can be done in two ways:

European style: Knife and fork placed parallel to each other, handle at 5 o’clock, blade and fork in the center of the plate (fork tip facing down).
American style: Similar to European style, only the tip of the fork is facing up.

Eat rice and small-sized foods skillfully. You will have to politely scoop food with your fork instead of futilely trying to poke your fork into the food. Americans will often rely on a fork (again, often not very efficiently), while in the European style sometimes use an extra knife or a piece of bread to scoop food.

To eat pasta, you rotate the fork to twist the pasta into the fork. If you have a spoon, you can combine it with a fork to get the noodles and then twist the noodles into the fork, leaning the fork against the spoon for ease. If the noodles are too long and tangled, you can use a knife to cut them off if needed. However, before trying to deal with it, you can simply split some noodles to eat. Also, you should have a piece of tissue ready.

If you are not good at eating pasta, don’t worry because you are not alone. Even people who regularly eat pasta will make their plates messy. The problem is not with the use of knives and forks, but as long as you don’t smoke and rustle when you eat.

Advice

Do not worry. Not everyone has the exact same way of holding a knife and fork. In addition, some foods will have a different use of cutlery. You just need to grasp the basic principles, no need to pay too much attention to the details.

Warning

Don’t let your elbows out. Learn to keep them close to your body. Otherwise you will bump into the person sitting next to you!

Steps

European (Continental)

American style

Rules on the dining table

Advice

Warning

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