Consider the Fork

A wooden spoon - most trusty and loveable of kitchen implements - looks like the opposite of 'technology', as the word is normally understood. But look closer. Is it oval or round? Slotted or solid? Does it have an extra-long handle to give your hand a place of greater safety from a hot skillet? Or a pointy bit at one side to get the lumpy bits in the corner of the pan? It took countless inventions, small and large, to get to the well-equipped kitchens we have now,...
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A wooden spoon - most trusty and loveable of kitchen implements - looks like the opposite of 'technology', as the word is normally understood. But look closer. Is it oval or round? Slotted or solid? Does it have an extra-long handle to give your hand a place of greater safety from a hot skillet? Or a pointy bit at one side to get the lumpy bits in the corner of the pan?

It took countless inventions, small and large, to get to the well-equipped kitchens we have now, where our old low-tech spoon (found, like the knife, in every culture) is joined by mixers, freezers and microwaves, but the story of human invention in the kitchen is largely unseen. Countless decisions, obsessions and preoccupations have gone into the making of your pots and pans. Indeed the very foods we eat speak of the time and the place we inhabit.

From the birth of the fork in Italy as it discovered pasta, to culture wars over spoons in Restoration England, and tests for how to choose the perfect pan, Consider the Fork opens our eyes to the incredible creations that have shaped how and what we cook. Encompassing inventors, scientists, cooks and chefs, this is the previously unsung history of our kitchens.