DEAR MISS MANNERS: When the British eat soup, they spoon away from themselves. Why do Americans spoon towards themselves?
GENTLE READER: They don’t. At least, polite Americans do not.
Lest you think that Miss Manners endorses British table manners for Americans, let her assure you to the contrary. In that matter of switching the fork to the right hand, the American method is the more traditional one, imported when it was still practiced in Europe, but later abandoned there in the interest of speed.
But no one of sense, American or British, would think it wise to push hot liquid in one’s own direction.