i's sure it must be just a TV thing because most people hold it like i do
Maybe most of the people you know or encounter, but there’re plenty of people around the world who hold it like the top pic, continental style.
I’m one of them, and I’m a Midwestern US farmboy from solid Kentucky roots. I don’t know when I switched over, but it was at a pretty early age. About the only time I hold it American style is when I’m eating some kind of dessert.
if its not a TV thing as you say, then why do American tv shows always show it your way , never as you say
" the American " way
It’s probably (my opinion only) an attempt on the TV chef’s part to look…cheffy? Is that the right word? They’re the self-appointed experts on all things food-related, so of course they don’t use their utensils like the rabble (us), they have a “better” way.
I think there’s definitely an undercurrent of classism here (meaning the US, not this forum), where some things from “the Old Country) are seen as superior to New World behaviors, and that includes continental style utensil use.
It’s the same with word choice/use. It became trendy several years ago (and it persists) for folks here to pronounce the “h” in “herbs,” where for decades or more, it was always pronounced with a silent “h.” Suddenly, that Old World way it saying it was seen as fancy, and therefore, better.
Recipe/dish/ingredient names get the same treatment. Americans (for better or worse) used to make up their own names for foods when they were brought here. I used to see fan potatoes, or accordion potatoes when I was a kid…nowadays, every restaurant and recipe is for hasselback potatoes…the usual European/UK name.
I think it’s a somewhat misplaced attempt to sound fancier, and therefore “better” than the person next door.