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Utensils and Cutlery


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#1 Jason Perlow

Jason Perlow
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Posted 17 September 2003 - 08:24 AM

Ugo: Nowadays at a large dinner, its not uncommon for a diner to have several knives and forks to eat different dishes with. Did you always start with the outside fork and work your way inward?
Jason Perlow
Co-Founder, The Society for Culinary Arts & Letters
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#2 Peter Elbling

Peter Elbling
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Posted 17 September 2003 - 10:43 AM

Outside fork? What are you talking about? Outside of where? We only had one fork. Why did you need more than one fork?
For a long time people did not use a fork at all. In fact, it was at the last banquest in Corsoli that a fork was used for the first time in Romagna. And then by mistake. Forks were just used to fish the meat out of a bowl and put in on a trencher. It was only because that dwarf, Giovanni was showing off, telling everyone to hold the meat down with the fork and then cut it with the knife, that the fork is used the way it is now.
But many things have come about by accident. It was only because Miranda did not wish to show that she had made a mistake that she told Tommaso to serve some prosciutto with melon. Now people eat it like that all the time.