In a study by Debenhams, almost 32 per cent of customers said they bought fewer knives specifically because they now preferred using forks on their own.
An additional 24 per cent were baffled by place settings, while 28 per cent did not possess fish knives and saw no reason for buying them.
Nineteen per cent could not tell the difference between a soup spoon and a dessert spoon.
The retailer is launching a Civilised Dining Campaign to protect the traditional British way of eating (and promote itself in the process).
"Using both a knife and a fork to eat has held this country in good stead for centuries. It's one of the mainstays of being British," said its spokesman, Ed Watson.
"It's about maintaining standards, before the single fork habit becomes ingrained in the next generation. Bad table manners can turn an enjoyable meal into an embarrassment."
Fish knives? Dessert spoons? Silly British folk. Here's what we don't understand: metal utensils? They're so expensive! Why not go plastic utensil shopping in your Chinese takeout bag? They're giving them away for free, people! Oh well, we'll get there eventually. At least we're on the right path.
Why nobody is forking out for knives anymore [New Zealand Herald]
(Photo: billaday)
"This steak still has marks from where the jockey was hittin' it".
Plus, when I pass a golf course, I always yell out "It's in the hole, it's in the hole".
I don't even have a dining room table in my 1BR apartment...no need, nor room, for one. I sit at my desk with my "consumables" and enjoy threads like this one.
]]>Plus, as a right-hander, I don't see why I HAVE TO have my fork on the left side of the plate...doesn't make sense to me. I see it all as stuck-up. If I need a knife, I'll either have one at the ready, or I'll get my sorry butt up and get one...it's not that big a deal.
But to fuss over what amounts to nothing more than human feeding time, is a waste of time to me. If I can have a good meal AND conversation with others, FINE, but snobbery needs not be a part of the scene. Tradition is fine, but not on an everyday basis. C'mon, a PBJ and chips for lunch is no justification for "proper place settings". Unless, of course, you're one of these rich snobs with more money than sense.
]]>Stealing silverware from a restaurant is one of those things I hadn't even thought about, and I roll my eyes at you collective bunch of petty thieves that think this is acceptable.
]]>Using your fork "like a spoon" is often considered an American import.
]]>@subtlefrog: You know what you need? Some Indian scientists. Hand use is the way to go there.
]]>@Trai_Dep: has anyone invented the fife or knork? it's a fork with a cutting edge. of course you'd end up looking like the joker, but the time you would save.
]]>@captadam: Not to mention the waste of making, buying, and washing so many utensils for one stinking meal.
I mean what have you done to your fork eating salad that it can't be used for your steak?
Steak knife and regular knife? sure. but all these forks and spoons and even other knives? that is just pointless.
]]>Besides the spork, who could forget the knork:
[www.knork.net]
and this:
[knifewrench.ytmnd.com]
@catastrophegirl:
Do you own a pickle fork?
And hence the stabby comments begin.
]]>things come into fashion, and they go out again
in the middle ages most europeans cut their food with their belt knives - the same knife they used for everything else, be it shortening a leather bridle strap or scraping gunk off their shoes
see how much more 'civilized' we are today?
Yes!!!
]]>@Trai_Dep: "I eat my peas with honey, I've done it all my life. It makes them taste quite funny but it keeps them on my knife!"
]]>As Floraposte says, culinary custom isn't about efficiency- if it was, we certainly wouldn't be having a discussion about using two different forks, two different spoons and multiple knives over the course of one meal (which is, of course, the traditionally "correct" way to do things). It's just the way the eating custom has evolved, the same way various Asian countries continue to use chopsticks, other places won't eat with the left hand at all, et cetera, et cetera. And I say that as an American who doesn't do the fork switching thing at all (maybe because I lived in the UK briefly as a kid, but I don't recall my parents ever doing it, either- clearly, this needs investigating).
]]>He used the knife to layer different foods onto his fork and then placed neat packages into his mouth. It was pure architecture and destruction.
The fork was flipped from my accustomed shovel shape to more of an elevated form where the tines were higher than his hand. I was impressed.
]]>We don't really use knives that much, either, unless we're eating chicken or steak or something that actually, y'know, requires cutting. Otherwise, we don't bother putting them out- there's really no point in putting out four knives only to collect them again, unused, and put them back in the silverware drawer. Of course, I'm a heathen colonist, so even when we do have meat, we usually just eat it raw and tear it off the bone with our bare hands.
Personally, I'm not too worried if Debenham's is upset that their silverware sales are on a downward spiral. Though thinking about it, it seems to me that in explaining what a fish knife is for, for example, they're more likely to talk people out of buying them. I can see it now:
"How often do we have fish, anyway?"
"What, like with chips?"
"No, actual fish!"
"Oh, hardly ever. Our Loretta won't eat it, you see. Not after that incident at her hen night in Malaga."
"Guess we don't need these, then!"
As one who has British parents, I have never understood the American habit of "fork in left hand when cutting, switch to right hand to put in mouth".
It amazes me to see so many people who either have a ridiculous attitude towards using their left hand, or they're just that uncoordinated.
]]>It is just amazing that people think it is no big deal to steal from others provided it is only a business who suffers the loss. I imagine if someone came over to their house and stole a fork and a knife or a mug that they thought was cool they would see it from another perspective.
Makes me wonder what goes on in people's heads sometimes.
]]>/uncultured and lovin' it.
]]>And yes, cultural customs like place settings are associated with class systems-hence the elaborate place settings in expensive restaurants with different utensils for different courses. The ability to afford multiple-course meals and multiple silverware to accompany them is a way of separating the haves with the have-nots. Those of us who aren't rich can still show we are"cultured" by adhering to a "proper place setting" (which, to some minds, makes us superior to the "animals" who don't).
]]>For the uninformed, you just drink the soup out of the bowl and eat the soup bits with the chopsticks.
]]>Sure, I look like "that guy" when everyone's eating with their lonely forks, but it's really convenient and comfortable. I crave the fork and knife set even at barbecues.
I'm not British.
]]>@AD8BC: Ha Ha stealing is so funny. What time do you leave home we need to go shopping? Ouch not so funny if its you being stole from.
]]>I do lament the lost art of serving utensils, mostly just the butter knife: The butter version of a double dip is frightening. A slotted spoon for certain items is critical to efficient serving. A gravy & soup ladle is a must at times. A single spoon to serve everything often becomes a sight. Please don't serve yourself with a place setting utensil already used!
]]>@Trai_Dep: Sorry but after your rampant Apple fan boi comments I can't take anything you read seriously
lol, iPwn3d
]]>What you need are hollow chopsticks so that you can use one as a straw.
]]>I can't stand class lines but unfortunately they're alive and well. I moved from the Mid-Atlantic to the South last year and the upper-crust southerners can't stand me. I'm a slightly eccentric working class girl who gets along great with the rednecks and middle class types but the country club set down here might as well BE British. They hate me with a passion for some kooky reason.
Once me and the hubby's income goes up I'm tempted to go into the swankiest country club in the area and pull an Al Czervick act. Now THAT would make me feel really good!
]]>Soup spoons, dessert forks, even iced tea spoons have routine uses and benefits. Fish forks and other obscure cutlery not so much.
Soup spoons are rounder and deeper than a regular spoon and work better for scooping up liquid.
Dessert forks are shorter and work well for grabbing smaller bites of desserts without them falling apart.
Iced tea spoons work great for things like malts, iced coffee and well, tea.
Just doing my part to keep the common man down through proper cutlery!
]]>I have to agree, I do prefer eating soup with a soup spoon because of the shape and I haven't ever seen them at retail. Not even Ikea carries them.
Now would you be so kind as to enlighten us as to what cheese taties are? Thanks!
]]>Place settings have a time and a place...if the restaurants I go to want to give me two forks and two spoons, that's great. I don't have to wash the extra utensils. But when I'm at home, that's my time and money spent washing spoons and forks just because I didn't want to use two different forks for my entree and salad. No thanks. I'll just use one fork.
]]>I would appreciate finding out where I am going wrong in my view of this.
]]>But, you know, what does some plucky yank know about anything.
]]>I don't think ties should be mandated the way they are in the workplace. They are just a clothing accessory and should be worn because someone wants to. I do wish more people cared about their appearance enough to wear suits or ties or hats because they want to, not because they were forced to. But I would love to see fashion dictates loosened a bit at the same time. Mens fashion is too limited socially in too many places.
]]>I was. The story mentioned Britain, see. And British teeth jokes seem to be de rigeur in such situations.
]]>Please explain how the fact that some department store is bitching about how nobody buys overpriced cutlery sets anymore is evidence that "they" ("they" as in "all British people", rather than "the Debenhams press office") look down on what you refer to as "the lower classes"...? Not quite seeing it, myself.
]]>Spat my tea on my keyboard at that one! I'd forgotten about ASBOs.
I possess just as many knives as I do forks, but the knives rarely come out of the drawer. That'll be because most of what I cook doesn't require a knife. Not sure why I'd need a full place setting when I sit down to eat a bowl of pasta.
]]>There's a reason why family portraits have a LOT of eye patches.
]]>... A "proper" place setting is a contrivance--a social norm that developed for no other reason than that it developed. Since it is not rooted in anything truly objective, it can change with time.
]]>To this day we refer to the place as "The Purloined Fork Restaurant."
]]>@LastError: I tried that once, but it took me seven hours to finish my soup.
]]>The other, of course, being the ASBO.
]]>I'm eating nearly everything with chopsticks these days. Because I can, not because I have to.
]]>I wasn't expecting a British teeth joke.
]]>Well, thanks for summing up one of the mainstays of being British! Perhaps the accent is another one? And that's it? Are you saying Brits are that shallow? Way to insult your entire country while hawking your wares!
]]>Now if only someone would make a show about hunting, killing, preparing and eating all your food with a knork.
GENIUS!
Mistaking manners and etiquette for the real class system that exists seems like a distraction. Anyone even someone on minimum wage can decide how they want to behave or do things.
Did everyone else grow up eating Frankenberry with their fingers for dinner? There are days I weep for society.
]]>I mean, hell, it's by no means a new concept. But just to think that it's still as popular as ever.
]]>I'm surprised that in our culture, this day and age and all, that we even use forks!
Taco's, Burritos, Hamburger, Chicken, French Fries, Sub sandwiches... None of those need forks nor knives.
Fast food did away with the need for utinsels.
]]>I have a complete set for eight that were provided courtesy of "76" truck stop restaurants
]]>