In the late 11th century, the Bishop of
Ostia, St. Peter Damian, condemned the
fork. He wrote of a Byzantine princess
who traveled to Venice to marry and
brought a set of forks with her: “She
deigned not to touch her food with her
fingers, but would command her eunuchs
to cut it up into small pieces, which she
would impale on a certain golden
instrument with two
prongs and thus
carry to her
mouth.”
She later
died of the plague,
which Damian interpreted as
punishment for such “luxury.”Turning the Tables
Despite such disapproval, the fork’s
slow conquest of Europe was carried
out from Italy. By the 1400s Florence’s
ruling Medici family had 56 silver forks
in their kitchen. Traveling to France to
marry Henry II in 1533, Catherine de
Médicis became the emissary of the
fork in the royal court. She ran into im-
mediate resistance. It was scorned as
an affectation and provoked hilarity
when food fell off.
English travel writer Thomas Cory-
ate was very impressed with the uten-
sil dur ing a visit to Italy. Writing in his
1611 travel account, Coryate’s Crudities,
he said: “[T]he Italian cannot by any
means indure to have his dish touched
with fingers, seeing all mens fingers are
not alike cleane. Hereupon I my self
thought good to imitate the Italian fash-
ion.” He was mocked for doing so. The
18th-century author Johann Beckmann
noted the English lampooned the uten-
sil as “an effeminate piece of finery.”
Even so, motivated by the same con-
cerns for hygiene, European upper class-
es began to use the fork. By the 18th cen-
tury it had caught on in the wider
population. Forks with
three and fourtines
proved more
practical, and curves
were added to make scoop-
ing up food easier. These im-
provements paved the way for the boom
in fork varieties. These were enthusias-
tically bought by wealthy Britons, in-
spired by Queen Victoria, who regarded
fork use as a sign of refinement.
The fork’s introduction to North
America is traced to 1633, when John
Winthrop, a founder of the Massachu-
setts Bay Colony, was gifted a dining set.
It included “a forke for the useful appli-
cation of which I leave to your discre-
tion,” an admission that its function was
not clear to the giver. At first, fork use in
America was confined to the wealthy,
and its spread through the wider popu-
lation was slower than in Europe. By the
mid-19th century the utensil had been
adopted by the masses in the United
States.
The industrial revolution cemented
the fork’s presence on dining room tables
as production of flatware became faster
and less expensive. Writing in 1896 in
Social Etiquette, Maud C. Cooke declared
the fork had finally “subjugated the
knife” in America, and “any attempt to
give the knife undue prominence at [the]
table is looked upon as a glaring offense
against good taste.”—Corrado Occhipinti ConfalonieriTHE TINES
THEY ARE
A-CHANGIN’roman era
Two-pronged forks are used in
kitchens to carve or lift meats
from a cauldron or fire but are not
used in dining.
1000 s
A Byzantine princess travels
to Venice to wed and brings her
own set of forks, which causes
a scandal.
1533
After Italians embrace the fork,
Catherine de Médicis tries (and
fails) to promote it in France after
marrying future King Henry II.
1611
English travel writer Thomas
Coryate adopts the fork after a
visit to Italy, but back home the
practice is seen as pretentious.
1633
John Winthrop of Massachusetts
becomes one of the first American
colonists to use a fork, then largely
confined to the wealthy.
1850
Inspired by Queen Victoria, who
regards using forks as more
refined, the utensil becomes
popular with the English.THREE-TINE FORK, 17TH
CENTURY. PALACE OF FINE
ARTS, LILLE, FRANCE
STÉPHANE MARECHALLE/RMN-GRAND PALAIS