There is something that has been persistently bothering me at
every dinner party I have participated in since arriving in Australia. People
here hold their fork in the left hand – prongs down – and cut their food with
the knife in the right hand. Then they bring the food directly into their
mouths with the fork in the left hand – again, prongs down at all times. I typically
hold my fork like a pen in the left hand, and just frantically scoop food onto
it with my knife. If I’m feeling real fancy, I’ll set the knife down and transfer
the fork over to my right hand, but always with the prongs up.
I’ve always felt confident that I was raised with decent
table manners, but this was starting to make me feel paranoid. I recently
decided it warranted some further investigation, and it turns out there are two
styles of fork etiquette: American and Continental. American style was
described by Emily Post as ‘The Zigzag Method’, and it’s also known as ‘The
Star-Spangled Fork Flip’, ‘Homeland Handover’ and ‘The Freedom Fork-over’. I’m
very happy to know that I won’t have to retrain myself how to eat.
