Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Yep, I do too... I eat most foods with a knife and fork, for a couple of reasons.

First reason is that I don't like getting my hands greasy and foody, the second reason is that I have a (temporarily capped) tooth in the front (thanks to a drunken escapade in college) that I never had permanently capped. I've had it crushed by a Staten Island bagel before and a chewy english muffin another time, so I don't like to tug or bite into chewy foods anymore.

Plus, I find the sound of people licking and smacking their fingers to be repulsive.

Anyone that tells me I have to eat anything a certain way gets attitude from me. I already have a mother thanks, I'm a big girl, I can eat however the eff I choose now.

Me too. Knife and fork.

My Norwegian relatives, even the teenagers, eat it with a knife and fork. But when they visit here, they happily switch.

Depends on the pie.

Fold and eat with a napkin at the ready. If exceedingly hot and I can't wait to taste, might use a knife and fork just until I can ummmmm...fold and eat.

Fold!!!!

(but if no one's looking, i take off the crust, eat the crust, then fold and eat the rest)

If I had eaten pizza with my hands my grandmothers would have freaked.
When we were small they cut it up for us to eat with our hands. Folding pizza and eating is street style what you do when you get street food. When you are home you are supposed to eat it with a fork and knife.
Do I always do that? Often. I like to cut mine up and give the crust to the dogs.

the only way. FOLD IT or else. that's like eating a hamburger with a fork and knife.... it's just not done!

What's wrong with eating a hamburger with a fork and knife!? I do it if it's made the way I like it. Plus, I tend to throw out the bun 1/3 of the way through anyway. =)

If I'm at a snobbish restaurant with uhh "flatbread" (LOL that is so stupid), I'll eat the pizza with a fork and knife...albeit rare since I don't eat pizza. From what I recall as a kid, when I was with my family, I at pizza with my fingers. Sushi is meant to be eaten with fingers. Everyone ate sushi when they were little, so people aren't squeamish about eating with the fingers in Hawaii. When I had to eat pizza with friends, we all ate it with a fork and knife so we wouldn't get greasy fingers while we were out shopping for LPs, clothes, etc.

eat it the way you wanna eat it.

I eat most pizza with a knife and fork, especially Chicago style deep dish. But if it's thin crust and small pieces, sometimes I'll eat it with my hands.

I'm not sure if I understood the original poster correctly but you said you cut with a knife and fork up until the crust. Does that mean you don't eat the crust? That is my favorite part! :)

Hillary
Chew on That

Hmm, I've never used a knife and fork for pizza. And I rarely fold. Just pick it up and eat it. If it's a place where I know I like the bare crust, I'll usually eat that side first. Otherwise I just direct the point of the slice toward my mouth and bite.

Since an incident in Spain where I dove right in there and ate my first slice of pizza with my hands and then turned around to find everybody (and I mean everybody!) in the place eating with their knives and forks I tend to have a furtive look around first. And yes I know that is caving to peer pressure but hey...im shallow;)
I always eat with my hands if possible when alone though.....yes, I may have been born in a field! But then again I get all squeamish when I have to eat prawns from the shell (or whatever the correct term is...eww antennae!) or seafood in general unless its presented to me in a non-threatening way so....each to their own!

Iz.... you didn't mention crawfish, and that makes me sad? Ever had the joy?

Sure, that counts. I love the little things, though. Dating someone with a shellfish allergy was, in retrospect, not the best decision I ever made! =D

Only at Pizza Popilus in Detroit, Michigan and Lui's in Hazel Park, Michigan is where I eat pizza with a fork and knife... the pizza is always so hot and difficult to eat with hands.

Both ways - thin and crispy with my hands. Thick or pan with a knife and fork. I have a beard and hate it when food gets all clogged up in whiskers around my mouth. You should see how I've mastered the art of eating hamburgers with a knife and fork. The only foods I can't do this with are chicken wings, hard tacos and craw fish.

Depends on the pizza! But I prefer the kind you can pick up and fold. Hmmmm - I might need a slice for lunch...

@ElDee- when i went to Spain i had the same experience! except i was eating a hamburger with my hands. it was in the mall food court for goodness sakes. and about half way thru one of the best burgers i ever ate i looked around and EVERYONE else was eating their burgers and pizza with a knife and fork. i got lots of strange looks and i think my Europe-savvy sister about died of embarrassment! Now im married to a man of mexican descent and we eat everything with our hands (and a corn tortilla!) :)

I must say I am shocked at how many of you are cutters ( in the pizza sense not the branglina sense). I always pick it up, if it is big fold over or not just eat it like a board.

Kate I eat mine the same way a lot of the time - remove cheese eat the fold and consume.

I eat with my hands WAY to much though so I may not be the best judge of what is appropriate

I use a fork and knife only if it's too hot to pick up!

Pick it up and eat it - if it's a giant NYC slice, then fold. I've tried the fancy, knife and fork thing, especially in sit-down restaurants and it just doesn't do it for me - piza needs to be picked up!

I do both -- depends on the pizza. As long as I get to savor it, I don't care how it gets to my mouth!

I have done this before, with a very sloppy 'za, but it's certainly not my preferred way of ingestion.

Use your hands, man!

Pizza is finger food, no knife and fork!

absolutely not allowed.
fold, and bite

I'm guilty of eating the entire slice, crust and all, using a knife and fork.

And my reason for doing so is rather pathetic, I suppose. I just don't like getting my hands oily.

I use a fork and a knife if the pizza is too hot or too greasy. I will use my hands otherwise. Also - no folding. If pizza is too big to eat properly flat, then I will cut the slice in half as appropriate.

I use a fork because I can't eat the crust (allergies) but in my next life I am picking it up and eating away.

Lego, Lego, Let me at him. Why, I oughta .....

(feeling like Curly of the Three Stooges).

I like my taco shell crispy and my pizza folded.

Depends on the pizza...

If it's really hot, or if the toppings are sliding off I'll grab a fork. I'll also go for a fork if I'm in a professional setting and they provide pizza at a luncheon or something.

Otherwise, I eat it with my hands, folding if the slice is large, thin, and floppy.

I was raised in the UK as a Brit and it's the norm to consume pizza, both in restaurants, at home, whether homemade or not, with a knife and fork. Even though I live in the US, I still tend to eat pizza with both utensils.

Before visiting Italy, I would have laughed at this question? But, at a sidewalk café on Capri, right off Napoli, the birthplace of pizza, they actually served my quattro stagioni (four seasons) pizza on a china plate, complete with silverware!

(However, when we got pizza at a food court in a mall in Genoa, they served it on a paper plate without silverware, the way Americans do.)

But still, as a native of New Jersey and also a former resident of Manhattan, eating pizza with a knife and fork goes against my nature. The traditional way to eat a slice of New York pizza, especially from one of those windows that opens onto the sidewalk, where you eat your pizza standing up, is to 1) Grasp the slice near the outer crust, with ring finger and thumb under the crust, and index finger and middle finger on top of the crust, all fingers pointing toward the point. 2.) Exert downward pressure with the index and middle finger, and upward pressure with the thumb and ring finger, forcing the slice to fold in half, lengthwise, from point to rim. 3) Eat from the point towards the wide end. Notice that all this can be done with only one hand, leaving the other hand free to hold your drink, napkin, etc. This is an art equivalent to folding one's newspaper into narrow columns for reading on the subway! New Yorkers are masters of doing everything quickly, efficiently, and under trying circumstances. :)

My dad used to eat his pizza with a fork and knife. But more to my point, my dad also used to wear cowboy boots with shorts. Now if that doesn't have you running from the fork and knife, I don't know what will.
Pizza needs to be loved and handled, not dissected, but each to their "cowboy boots and shorts wearing" own.
By the by, my wife calls the crust (her favorite part) the Pizza Bone.

While vacationing in Spain, as I am wont to do, I happened to mention to my senora that the ideal pizza is covered in a lake of still-liquid cheese. To twirl this cheese up with a fork and shove it into my eagerly waiting mouth - this is ecstasy. This is luxury.

A foldable pizza is not a pizza, just as soft ice cream is not ice cream.
A pizza should be crisp enough to resist folding. A slice may be bent slightly at the larger end (by hand) to get at the eating end more easily.
A knife and fork is a last resort to handle pizza that is too hot, over-topped or runny. I am surprised that no one has mentioned that high-quality, crisp, properly topped New York pizza must be eaten with cold Coca-Cola, out of the can, with a straw. Finally, all pizza requires a wad of napkins opposite the eating hand to soak up the inevitable drops of oil that may drip from even the best pizza. So be it. I have spoken.

@asnet:

I'm stumped. Where can I find high-quality, crisp (non-foldable?), properly topped New York pizza? It's a myth, as far as I know, and I've searched high and low.

WITH MY HANDS! and I eat the crust too!