How to use and hold cutlery

British etiquette coach and expert William Hanson provides a quick and speedy look at how to hold, use and position cutlery.

If you want elegant, English-made cutlery as featured in the video use code WH15 on the Arthur Price website to receive 15% off.

[ajhubbell]

Your inclusion of some of the international variances is appreciated.
Thank you.

[Luna...]

Thank you for your videos. Some people think table manners are stuffy, which is ridiculous; I've taught my kids it's better to know them if you're ever in such a social situation. It's always better to know, then to feel out of place

[tamarachilingaryan]

Dear Mr Hanson,
This is very helpful. I watch these videos with great pleasure. It is lovely to know the etiquette, isn't it?

[hypereactivegbu]

Thank you for this video!

I live in Asia and I’m curious about 1 thing concerning food etiquette. We typically consume rice and I was wondering if there is a particular way of eating rice American/Continental style? Do you still use fork and knife? In Asia, we mostly use chopsticks or a spoon.

[fitzu.]

Grandma always taught us to hold the fork and the knife further back than on the video. Never close to the blade or the bridge.

[_JohnDoe]

Kindly show us how to eat baked beans. Should one turn the fork around in the hand and scoop the beans up?

[naimahmed]

Thank you for uploading this type of video ☺️

[Milestonemonger]

This should be taught in schools and at home.
When I waited tables during college in Hawaii, only a handful of people had basic table etiquette. It said so much about a person.

[rdjune]

I work at an inner-city secondary school in England. I would say that 99% of the kids who eat meals in the dining room have no idea how to hold and use a knife and fork correctly, probably because of a combination of the fact that at home they don't use cutlery/their parents have not been able to pass the skill on because they never used cutlery themselves/overuse of fast food eaten with the hands.
The main bad-practice is holding the knife and fork in the wrong hands (they put the fork in the right hand and the knife in the left). Then there is not using a knife at all or using the knife (in the wrong hand) to cut something, then putting it down and transferring the fork to the right hand to eat the food that has been cut. Another is holding the knife like a pen. yet another is using the fork like a shovel, either away from them or towards them. It is very frustrating for me that nothing is done to correct this. Our school does well in grades and university places, but I do worry that when a lot of these kids have to go to functions and working lunch meetings at good restaurants how they will get on with their peers/bosses looking at them eating like they are in a cave! PS. I am 58, a caretaker, not a teacher, and am perhaps the only one left at the school who thinks good table manners and etiquette still matter.

[nicolerubio]

Please do a video on table setting for afteroon tea. Thank you!

[hailehoang]

How about being left handed? Do i need to switch the cutleries in the beginning?

[AhmedKhan-gvnt]

I'm 22 years old
I know everything
But I'm watching this just because of Quarantine...
Please Crona Go
We are bored

[fatimr]

I missed your videos . When will you give us another lesson.

[Kwippy]

In the US you cut up the food with the knife in your right hand, then you put down the knife, transfer the fork to your right hand and use that to shove the food in your mouth.

[dr.catinstein]

Damn before I watched this I used my sister's ear to eat soup

[susanobrien]

I'm going to try to get my sister and ape-in-law, I mean brother-in-law to watch this. I'm feeling horribly smug and pleased with myself on seeing your advice confirming my own behaviours but also annoyed that I am such a snob! :(

[taraconstruction]

Very good video
In my hotel, some people still don't understand the difference between Fish Knives and B&B Knives

[guybythedoor]

Would you please address the British use of the side plate and its position?

[Drirton]

Could you explain drinks, please? I noticed you had two on the table. Looks to be water and red wine? Why the two?

[harshalpadole]

Legend has it that he is still replying to the comments