Many Americans don’t like to see their politicians eating pizza with a fork.
Witness the criticism levied at Republican presidential hopeful John Kasich when he was spotted eating the classic dish with a fork.
Kasich defended his utensil use.
"Look, look, the pizza came scalding hot, OK? And so I use a little fork," he told ABC-TV's Good Morning America show. "You know what? My wife who is on spring break [holidays] with my daughters, said, ’I'm proud of you. You finally learned how to use a utensil properly.’
"Not only did I eat the pizza," Kasich said. "I had the hot sausage. It was fantastic."
Perhaps realizing his error, Kasich later finished eating fork-free, but he did not fold the slice, as is customary in New York.
Kasich is not the first politician who has been derided - at least in New York - for using a fork to eat pizza. Comedian Jon Stewart mocked both the city's mayor, Bill de Blasio, and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump after they were filmed wielding knives and forks on their pizza.
Businessman Trump, also a former TV reality-show star, answered Stewart’s goading later with a rebuttal declaring his utensil technique was correct: "This way you can take the top of the pizza off. You're not just eating the crust. I like not to eat the crust so that we keep the weight down at least as good as possible."
