PETALING JAYA, Mar 8 — A former butler to the British royal family has been slammed online for suggesting that one must never eat rice with one’s hands or fingers.

Grant Harrold, who once served Prince Charles and his sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, came under fire for a Twitter post he made on Saturday advising people to always use utensils at the dinner table.

"Ladies and gentlemen, remember we always use a knife and fork or chopsticks to eat rice! 

"We do not use our hands or fingers,” wrote Harrold, who included an emoji looking aghast in his tweet.

The post also came with a photo of a person using a knife and fork to scrape up the last grains of rice on a plate.

Many social media users immediately criticised Harrold’s "advice” for sidelining South and South-east Asian eating cultures where it is common to use hands to eat during mealtimes.

"If you eat nasi padang with a knife and fork, you miss out on the fun, bro. I pity you,” said user @ladydevimon_.

Others also didn’t take kindly to the condescending tone of the post and brushed off Harrold’s unsolicited advice.

"Thank you very much but we prefer our hands and fingers to eat and we are unapologetic about it.

"We don’t need the so-called civilising colonisers anymore, we are an older civilization than you,” wrote user @sonalika_kumar.

Some users responded by making fun of Western habits, such as favouring toilet paper over a bidet and wearing shoes indoors.

"Say the people who don’t wash their rear with water and step in the house with their shoes on,” said @arifeddy12.

"Wash your butt with water first, then we can talk,” wrote @HanaChan3000.

Harrold has yet to respond to the scathing criticism but has instead retweeted the original post to his Twitter profile.