It’s fair to say that if you were tasked with naming the easiest foods in the world to eat, cereal would likely come to mind.
One of the most popular breakfast foods in the world, all it takes to indulge in a mound of Coco Pops is a bowl, a spoon, and a milk of your choice; simple as that, right?
According to etiquette guru William Hanson however, that’s not the case, and we’ve actually been making fools of ourselves for centuries.
In a recent TikTok, now with over 2.5 million views, the expert breaks down the proper and polite way to enjoy your morning cereal.
And the method he uses has proven controversial, being described by many of his followers as ‘rage bait’, with one going as far as to warn William that he’s ‘gone too far’.
What’s the ‘correct’ way to eat cereal?
In the video, William can be seen pouring a jug of semi-skimmed milk over his cornflakes, before picking up both a spoon and a fork.
‘With a spoon held in your dominant hand and a fork in your non-dominant hand, you now eat,’ he explains.
‘Now, it’s not soup, so you don’t need to scoop away from you like you would with soup. But you can use the fork to push some cornflakes onto your spoon and eat accordingly.’
It’s safe to say that William’s comments section were baffled.
‘William, I can’t defend you any longer,’ one user wrote, while another added: ‘At this point I’m convinced he’s just trolling us, because there’s no way this is for real’.
But was William really pulling our legs, or are we all just uncultured swines?
Jo Hayes, renowned etiquette consultant, tells Metro: ‘God bless William Hanson. I love this man and, as a general rule, align with his approach to modern etiquette standards. However, on whether this is typical, the answer is, no.
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‘I have literally never seen anyone eat cereal with a spoon and fork and I have attended many a hotel breakfast dining room, and many a formal corporate and business breakfasts.
‘For 99% of breakfast cereal eating situations, the spoon alone would be considered proper.’
That being said, Jo does note that ‘adding a fork to your spoon/cereal repertoire does actually make a lot of good manners sense, making the eating of cereal more delicate, polite and orderly.’
She also suggests William’s reasoning for using a fork might be more to do with the receptacle his cornflakes were delivered in.
‘The bowl William was eating his cereal from was beautiful, but not, I dare say, the typical bowl one would eat cereal from; even in a typical hotel setting,’ she explains.
‘Most cereal bowls are small with higher sides, the sides of the bowl essentially doing the “job” of the fork, in helping to get the cereal on to the spoon.’
So while William’s method may not be standard, if she were presented with a ‘wide formal soup bowl’ at breakfast — especially in a formal dining setting — she’d also consider a fork to help her start the day in ‘a more polite way’.
The polite way to eat ice cream
It’s not just cereal etiquette that’s on William’s hit list.
The expert also recently instructed audiences on exactly how to handle a bowl of ice cream when it starts to melt — without dripping it down your front.
At the start, he says ‘you can just use a spoon’, but when it gets ‘tricky at the end’, a luncheon fork comes into play.
This piece of cultery — slight smaller than a standard fork — works as as ‘an extension and replacement to our finger’.
‘Cut the ice cream and push it onto the spoon with the fork, and then eat from the spoon,’ he explains.
The more you know…
Is flossing in public socially acceptable now?
On the topic of proper manners, Metro recently investigated the epidemic of discarded dental floss picks on Britain’s streets, which suggests more and more people now think that flossing in public is okay. But according to etiquette expert Jo Hayes, it’s anything but.
‘If you find yourself in a small town truck stop, yes, quickly flossing would likely be acceptable,’ she says. ‘However, in the majority of regular social places and situations, no it is not.’
In general, Jo encourages everyone to think twice before rooting around for that pesky piece of sweetcorn stuck in between your teeth.
She adds: ‘It’s vulgar and rather unpleasant for those who are unfortunate enough to observe another person doing this. Find a bathroom, and leave the used toothpicks in the rubbish bin. Please, for the sake of human civility, do not drop used toothpicks on the ground. It’s repulsive.’
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