The selective recognition of chiral carbon nanoforms poses a fundamental challenge. New design principles must be devised to construct hosts capable of enantiodiscrimination between species in which chirality does not arise from asymmetric carbon atoms. In this emerging area article, we provide an overview of some of the relatively few successful examples of chiral recognition of carbon nanoforms, highlighting their common features with the aim of helping to develop general trends for the design of new generations of hosts.