Knives, forks, spoons should be enough but of course we have to over complicate matters with Fish Knives (actually forks as well but nobody in polite society would refer to the fishforks for some reason).
Dessert spoons, soup spoons, tea spoons, coffee spoons, egg spoons, salt spoons, mustard spoons, serving spoons, fruit spoons
Dessert Knives, fruit knives endless varieties of kitchen knives, butter knives, bread knives, carving knives.
Dessert forks, that bastion of the middle classes the Pastry fork and so it goes on and on.
The Yanks are even more anally retentive than the Brits when it comes to the use of cutlery with their nasty habit of using the knife and fork to cut everything up and then putting the knife aside and swopping hands to use the fork like some sort of shovel and heaven help you if you get it wrong!
Some years ago (about 40 years to be accurate) my then in-laws (from Sheffield) introduced me to a new (to me) concept of something they called a splayd which was a cross between a fork and a spoon. Used one handed they swore it meant one needed no other cutlery. It was something that Viners (well known Sheffield cutlery makers) had recently trialled or so they said.
Anywhoo what do the team think ~ is it time for a complete revolution of our eating etiquette? Do we want one handed eating at the table or are we simply reduced to grazing on the hoof and so have no need to worry about table manners any more?
