In America, we hold the fork in our left hand and our knife in our right hand to cut our food (assuming we’re right-handed), then switch hands with the fork to get the food to our mouth. In Europe it’s simpler, more direct. Hold the food still with the fork in your left hand while you cut it with your knife. Then put the food that is already skewered on your fork directly into your mouth. Sounds simple, right? We tried it while we were in England. First off, it’s hard to break that ingrained habit of switching hands with the fork. Second, when we eat American style, we’re moving the food to our mouths with the fork tines pointed up. The food tends to stay on it. European style, the fork tines are pointed down and the food wants to fall off back onto the plate mid-journey. We gave up and went with what we’re used to, transferring the fork hand to hand.
Another failure to adapt happened at the pizza restaurant. We could not bring ourselves to eat pizza with a knife and fork like what was happening at all the tables around us. That’s just wrong.