How to Use a Knife and Fork

Whether you are dining with the boss or trying to impress a date, bad table manners say a lot about you. Good manners show that you are a good choice for either promotions or another date. However, if you can't even use a knife and fork correctly, they may wonder what other areas you are lacking in. Fortunately, there are only four really critical rules for eating with a knife and fork.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Knife
• Fork
• Food

1. If you order off a menu and you have any doubts about how to use your cutlery, choose foods that only need a fork,. If you order an omelet or pasta dish, you may never need to use your knife at all.

2. Before you pick up any silverware, unfold the napkin and put it in your lap.

3. Your host or waiter has set the table with the silverware you may need from the outside in. Use the fork on your farthest left and the knife at the far right. Move in with each new food.

4. 
   The fork pins the food in place while the knife slices

   To cut your food, hold your fork tines pointing down in your left hand. Your index finger pushes down on the fork. Hold the knife, blade down, in your right hand. Your index finger pushes down on the knife. Note that you are controlling the flatware with your thumb and forefinger. You are not using your fists.

5. 
   The fork on the way to your mouth

   Then set your knife down on the plate. Switch the fork, tines down, with food on it to your right hand. With the right hand, lift the food to your mouth. This all gets easier with practice.

6. While you are chewing (with your mouth closed) set down your fork against the plate.

7. At the end of the meal, set your knife and fork down parallel on the plate, like a clock’s hour hand at 4:00.

Tips & Warnings

• Nobody really cares which fork you use as long as you don’t wave it around or grasp it in your fist. If you want to use the bigger fork for your salad, go for it.
• If you don’t know what to do, copy your hostess or host.
• Cut off one bite at a time.
• Some foods, like mashed potatoes, will slide off your fork if the tines are down. Hold those foods on your fork with the tines up, but still grasping between thumb and forefinger.
• Some foods have parts you can't swallow, like bones or seeds. Inedible parts leave your mouth the same way they came in. Fish bones exit on your fish fork; spare ribs stay in your fingers. The fancier the food, the more trouble the cook has taken so that all the food that goes in your mouth stays there.
• European people do not switch the fork back to their right hand after cutting. You do not have to, either, but it’s still recommended.
• On round tables, glasses and bread plates get crowded. The glass or glasses at your right hand are for you. The bread plate and butter knife at your left hand are for you. Use your butter knife to take a small chunk of butter and put it on the side of the bread plate. Take a piece of bread and break the bread into a bite sized morsel. Butter the one bite. Eat it and start over. Or announce that you are on a diet and skip the bread altogether.
• Any silverware above your plate is for dessert.
• Don’t touch your knife and fork until the hostess, if there is one, either picks up her fork or says, “Don’t wait for me!” or “Please start.” If there is no hostess, wait for the host. You will be especially embarrassed if you start munching before the prayer or blessing your host was planning.
• Don’t wrap a fist around your silverware. Always use the thumb and forefinger to control your fork or spoon. People who have been taught not to grab their fork with their fists have also learned not to comment on someone else's table manners. They still think unflattering thoughts when they see bad manners.
• Don’t wave your cutlery in the air. If it’s not on your way to your mouth or plate, put it down on the plate.
• Mom said it first: chew with your mouth closed.

Resources

• Table Manners Video

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