Italiano
Is it correct, according to etiquette, to eat pizza with your fingers?
Or should fork and knife be used?
Obviously, we are talking about pizza served on the plate and eaten at the table…
Well, there is no single answer. Also because there isn’t a world authority that supervises the rules of etiquette.
What seems to be the rule in Italy, now widely accepted even by the most extremist followers of bon ton, is that the pizza should be cut, using cutlery, into slices (in 8, so as not to make them too wide), and then each slice folded inwards and eaten with the fingers.
Perhaps placing the part closest to the tip on the fork, if the slice tends to fall and spill the sauce.
The Etiquette Scholar website, a sort of encyclopedia that collects the rules of etiquette from all over the world, is not of great help: “Large pieces of pizza served at a table require the use of a fork. If in doubt, watch the host and follow suit“.
Instead, Debrett’s, an English institution which, since 1769, has been monitoring and codifying the constantly evolving rules of etiquette, admits that “table manners are no longer about adhering to a rigid, and outdated, code of conduct“, and therefore green-lighted the use of bare fingers for eating pizza.
Peggy Post, an American author, recognized worldwide as an expert on etiquette, shares the same opinion: “It’s all right to pick up a slice because pizza is an informal food. The best way to eat it is to loosely fold a slice in half to keep the edges from dripping“.
Everyone agrees? Well, not really.
The lone voice is that of Lucy Challenger, CEO of Polo and Tweed, a high-level employment agency for the recruitment and training of butlers and domestic collaborators.
Lucy, in a video on Tik Tok, explains how to cut the pizza, first cutting a triangular wedge, and then small bites from this, starting from the centre and continuing towards the crust.
Lucy made this tutorial while specifying however that “in formal dining, in Britain, it’s unlikely that you’ll be served pizza“.
So? How shall you eat pizza?
Well, it depends on the context in which you find yourself.
My advice is: “Eat as you are most comfortable“.
If you’re as awkward as William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy eating pizza using cutlery, then go ahead with your hands.
Even if you’re in the Enterprise.
Oh, almost forgot: to make the dough rise, use the Inox Bim retarder proofer!
