How to eat a big burger, according to etiquette expert William Hanson - News + Articles

May 09, 2025

We have a beef with this.

Everyone loves a big, juicy burger. The bigger the better, if we’re being honest. I mean, sure, sliders are great and everything, but are they an entire meal in one bun? I think not.

If you’re like most people on the planet, when you’re faced with a large burger, you just pick that baby up with both hands and take a great big bite. In the process, you let all those saucy bits drip down your hands and get all up in your face. It’s messy, yes, but it also makes you feel oh, so alive. And what’s a bit of egg yolk between friends?

But apparently, eating a burger this way is simply not the done thing.

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How to eat a burger properly

UK social media darling William Hanson, AKA ‘That Etiquette Guy’, has revealed that the only socially acceptable way to eat a large burger is to “deconstruct it” with a knife and fork.

@williamhansonetiquette

You may even decide not to eat the top at all… #dining #etiquette #williamhanson

♬ original sound – William Hanson

While this all looks very demure, one has to ask: where is the joy? Where is the hedonistic pleasure that this poor burger has worked so hard to bring to the table? And if you really did eat a burger like that in public, how would you cope with all the pointing and staring?

You have to wonder about this guy. I mean, after a long day of telling other people how to eat peas and criticising our coffee-drinking habits, doesn’t he just want to cut loose and let it all hang out for a while? So picture him arriving home, pulling on his oldest pair of trackie-daks and his favourite I ♥️ HRH hoodie and cracking a tinnie in front of the telly while demolishing a family-sized bag of cheese and onion crisps. You wouldn’t let a guy like that tell you how to eat a burger now, would you?

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Credit: Mark Roper

How to eat a burger without making a mess

A few years back, food blogger Simon Dukes came out with a handy solution to the whole messy burger-eating experience. And it’s a lot simpler than faffing about with cutlery. Just turn your burger upside down.

Speaking to Business Insider, Dukes explained that the crown of the burger (the top bun) is generally thicker than the base, so if you flip your burger upside down, the crown will do a better job of carrying the weight of all the fillings, as well as better absorbing all the sauce and egg yolk and anything else you’ve got going on there. Other burger fans on Reddit have agreed with this theory, adding that when you eat a burger upside down, your tongue comes into contact with the other fillings first, before it reaches the patty, making it a more all-round pleasurable experience.

Ultimately, how you eat your burger is entirely up to you. Cut it in half first. Wrap it in a napkin. Read it a Shakespearean sonnet. Burgers are there to be enjoyed, so don’t let anyone judge you for doing so.