Eating with your dominate hand

[Grey]

Ok, this is a dumb question, but it's been bugging me for awhile.

Usually when people eat with forks and knives, they put their knife in their dominant hand, cut, set the knife down, pick up their fork with their dominant hand, and then eat.

But I've found that when I eat, I pick up my knife with whichever hand (if I'm already holding my fork in my right, it'll be my left, but if I'm holding nothing in my right I'll cut with my right) and then use my fork in the opposite hand to eat what I've cut. I can cut/transfer food to my mouth just as easily with either hand.

But when I watch other people eat, they always eat only with one hand, whichever their dominant is. Maybe this is just a table manners fail on my part (wouldn't surprise me) but I've asked a few right hand dominant people about it and they all said they can't eat well with their left hands at all.

So I'm wondering: can you use both hands equally well to eat, or do you use only one? If the latter, is it just how you were taught or because you can only eat well with your dominant hand?

I'm ambidextrous, and I'm trying to figure out whether I'm actually just being a pig-headed barbarian eating with both hands or whether people don't usually do that because they can't actually eat that way very easily.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I have a knife in my right hand and the fork in my left hand, and I use them together to eat. Using your knife, putting your knife down, picking up you fork, taking a bite and then repeating seems to be a very inefficient way to eat IMO.

 

[Yoda]

Uhh, I can't say I give half a shit about table manners, so I could be wrong... But I thought the 'proper' way to eat was knife in dominant hand and fork in the off hand without ever switching. Which would make the fork switch the caveman maneuver.

 

[Grey]

Oh, whew!

And I totally agree, it seems completely inefficient to keep switching the whole time!

 

[Miss Chicken]

In this video the woman calls eating with a knife and fork together "European or continental way". She also shows the other way.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InMsxQAzQjA[/yt]

 

[trekkiedane]

I was taught that cutting pieces, putting down your knife and eating only with your fork is boorish and that only old rural people (and Americans) eat that way.

However: cutting one bite, putting down the knife, moving the fork to the right hand and then eating the piece is advice given to people that eat so fast that they don't realise they're full before they've eaten way more than they need. - Dieting advice, in other words.

 

[Trekker4747]

I cut with my dominant hand and then use my (submissive?) hand to put the food in my mouth with the fork. If I really need to I can easily switch the utensils between my hands without needing to put either down.

 

[Amaris]

I cut the food, and then I eat it.

 

[Tosk]

I eat with my hands.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I cut stuff with the side of the fork. Guess I don't eat steak much.

 

[thestrangequark]

I cut with my dominant hand and then use my (submissive?) hand to put the food in my mouth with the fork. If I really need to I can easily switch the utensils between my hands without needing to put either down.

You mean, like, when you're eating against the clock, on a tall stool perched precariously over an active volcano full of lava sharks and putting a utensil down means running the risk of losing it forever in the fiery inferno of doom?

 

[Trekker4747]

You mean, like, when you're eating against the clock, on a tall stool perched precariously over an active volcano full of lava sharks and putting a utensil down means running the risk of losing it forever in the fiery inferno of doom?

Sunday dinners at my parents' house can be a bitch.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Chopsticks ftw. And the food you eat with chopsticks.

 

[RoJoHen]

I'm ambidextrous, and I'm trying to figure out whether I'm actually just being a pig-headed barbarian eating with both hands or whether people don't usually do that because they can't actually eat that way very easily.

The ambidextrous thing probably has a lot to do with it. I would have a helluva difficult time cutting my food if I tried to hold a knife in my left hand. And while I could hold the fork in that hand and use it for eating, it would still feel incredibly awkward. In general, my left hand is useless for anything more complicated than holding something in place.

 

[Grey]

I was taught that cutting pieces, putting down your knife and eating only with your fork is boorish and that only old rural people (and Americans) eat that way.

Lol! I'm American, so that may be a factor with what I'm observing in others.

Chopsticks ftw. And the food you eat with chopsticks.

Yes!

The ambidextrous thing probably has a lot to do with it. I would have a helluva difficult time cutting my food if I tried to hold a knife in my left hand. And while I could hold the fork in that hand and use it for eating, it would still feel incredibly awkward. In general, my left hand is useless for anything more complicated than holding something in place.

Yeah, see, that's what a lot of the people I asked about it said. So I wasn't sure if it was just ambidexterity or what!

I do a lot of things double-handed, and certain tasks are either left-hand dominated or right-hand dominated.

I use chopsticks best right-handed.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

I couldn't manage a knife very well with my left hand. If I need a knife, I hold it in my right hand and the fork in my left, so-called European style. If I don't need a knife, I just hold the fork (or chopsticks) in my right hand.

 

[scotpens]

. . . when I eat, I pick up my knife with whichever hand (if I'm already holding my fork in my right, it'll be my left, but if I'm holding nothing in my right I'll cut with my right) and then use my fork in the opposite hand to eat what I've cut. I can cut/transfer food to my mouth just as easily with either hand.

That's how I eat -- the so-called European or Continental method. I'm left-handed, so I hold the knife in my left hand and the fork in my right. Switching hands is a silly waste of time and motion.

Oh, and "dominate" is a verb. "Dominant" is an adjective.

I cut with my dominant hand and then use my (submissive?) hand to put the food in my mouth with the fork.

Sounds as if you've got kinky hands.

I would have a helluva difficult time cutting my food if I tried to hold a knife in my left hand. And while I could hold the fork in that hand and use it for eating, it would still feel incredibly awkward. In general, my left hand is useless for anything more complicated than holding something in place.

I'm most definitely left-handed. I can't even use a computer mouse with my right hand. My right hand has just enough coordination for holding an eating utensil and for wiping my butt.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Chopsticks ftw. And the food you eat with chopsticks.

Chopsticks are truly a more civilized way to eat. Cutting is the chef's job, I say!

 

[Gul Re'jal]

Usually when people eat with forks and knives, they put their knife in their dominate hand, cut, set the knife down, pick up their fork with their dominate hand, and then eat.

I never do that and hadn't heard that anyone does that until I was told by someone that it's an American way (I'm from Europe).

So it's not a universal way of eating.

I hold the knife in my right hand and fork in my left hand all the time. Or use chopsticks in my right hand and a spoon (simultaneously) in my left hand. If I hold only one, it's in the right hand.

 

[thestrangequark]

Chopsticks ftw. And the food you eat with chopsticks.

Chopsticks are truly a more civilized way to eat. Cutting is the chef's job, I say!

They are not optimal for peach pie, however.