{"id":2957,"date":"2012-11-19T09:43:21","date_gmt":"2012-11-19T13:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gastronomyatbu.com\/?p=2957"},"modified":"2018-03-28T17:53:07","modified_gmt":"2018-03-28T21:53:07","slug":"figuring-the-fork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/2012\/11\/19\/figuring-the-fork\/","title":{"rendered":"Figuring the Fork"},"content":{"rendered":"

By M. Ruth Dike<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Darra Goldstein\u00a0darragoldstein.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Have you ever thought about the\u00a0fork? Darra Goldstein has. On Monday, October 22nd<\/sup>, as part of the “P\u00e9pin Lecture Series”<\/a> sponsored by BU’s Program for Wine, Food, & the Arts, Goldstein, founding editor of food journal\u00a0Gastronomica<\/i><\/a>\u00a0gave an excellent lecture on the \u201cProgress of the\u00a0Fork: From Diabolical to Divine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goldstein began by explaining how the\u00a0fork, originally associated with pitchforks and the devil, contrasted to the more holy knife and spoon. While the knife is used during the Last Supper to cut bread and the spoon is associated with birth and the Virgin Mary, both have both been in use for much longer than the\u00a0fork. Before the widespread use of the\u00a0fork, tapestries, paintings, and even texts like Chaucer\u2019s Canterbury Tales give examples of nobles using their hands to eat.<\/p>\n

With the rise of the sweetmeat or \u201cwet succets,\u201dwhich are fruits preserved in sugar and syrup, the succet\u00a0fork\u00a0became necessary to ensure that European nobility did not soil their hands. However, there was still much opposition to the\u00a0fork; France\u2019s Henri III even said that he would not use a\u00a0fork\u00a0(like the Italians did) because it was too \u201cdainty\u201d for him. Slowly the\u00a0fork\u00a0became more and more widespread throughout Europe, eventually becoming standard in a traveler\u2019s personal cutlery.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Assorted forks. From left to right: dessert fork, relish fork, salad fork, dinner fork, cold cuts fork, serving fork, carving fork. Photo by Mark A. Taff.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the invention of electroplating in the 1840\u2019s, silver plated\u00a0forks\u00a0became easily obtainable by the middle class, especially after silver deposits were discovered on US soil. Because the\u00a0fork\u00a0had become accessible to [almost] everyone, the upper class decided to distinguish themselves by producing an exorbitant amount of\u00a0forks\u00a0for various uses.\u00a0Forks\u00a0were created specifically for macaroni, flaky fish, oysters, various fruits, etc.<\/p>\n

Tiffany even created a set including 131 items for one person during the 1880\u2019s. After Herbert Hoover decreed that sets could have a maximum of 55 pieces in 1925, the surprisingly relieved Emily Post said that \u201cno rule is less important than which\u00a0fork\u00a0to use.\u201d With some artistic exceptions,\u00a0fork\u00a0design has mainly focused on utilitarian purposes recycling previous styles heavily, since the 1930\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, the audience left with a new appreciation for the engaging history of the\u00a0fork.<\/p>\n

M. Ruth Dike is a first year Gastronomy student. She has BA in Anthropology from\u00a0the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Her past research explores the tension between traditional and modern cuisine in Morocco.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By M. Ruth Dike Have you ever thought about the\u00a0fork? Darra Goldstein has. On Monday, October 22nd, as part of the “P\u00e9pin Lecture Series” sponsored by BU’s Program for Wine, Food, & the Arts, Goldstein, founding editor of food journal\u00a0Gastronomica\u00a0gave an excellent lecture on the \u201cProgress of the\u00a0Fork: From Diabolical to Divine.\u201d Goldstein began by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14625,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2957"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14625"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2957"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8409,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2957\/revisions\/8409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/gastronomyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}