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Mom always told us to only cut one or two bites of food at a time, and we wondered why too. Seems more efficient to slice a whole fillet all at once, but then, good manners aren't really about efficiency. After searching on "cutting food etiquette," we discovered that Mom had something to do with the reason behind this dictum. First, we confirmed that proper etiquette requires you cut your food as you go. Emily Post, circa 1922, advises parents to teach their children to "cut off and eat one mouthful at a time." Fast-forwarding to the modern day, syndicated columnist Miss Manners
(aka Judith Martin) admonishes adults to "cut each bite of meat only before you eat it." Why? Because only children have all their food cut up for them at once. When you were too little to hold a knife and fork, your mother chopped up the food on your plate so you could eat it while she enjoyed her own meal uninterrupted. Once you are old enough to slice your food yourself, you're expected to eat slowly in a tidy fashion, one bite at a time. Cutting up an entire steak all at once makes you appear childish, thus it has become a social faux pas. If that wasn't enough of a reason to refrain from cutting all
your food at once, the practice also makes your food go cold much more quickly.
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