The Humble Fork

Twelve of us gathered on 29th October to hear Paul Iseard’s talk about the Humble Fork.

Paul used to own the Famous Sheffield shop, which sells a range of Sheffield made products (mostly metal). Over the years Paul has acquired a huge knowledge of the Sheffield cutlery trade, past and present.

We started with a quiz which challenged us to decide whether the 20 historical characters listed would have eaten their meal with no fork, or with a 2, 3 or 4 pronged fork. The answers were revealed at the end. One team achieved 17/20, after some lucky guesswork!

Paul then revealed the secret. Prior to the early 17th century all meals were eaten with a knife and spoon so both Elizabeth 1 and Henry VIII had no knowledge of a fork.

The first forks had only two tines and were viciously sharp. They were intended to spear the food, and could have caused damage to the palate if put in the mouth. The eighteenth century saw three tined forks appear, while four tines appeared in the late Victorian era.

Paul had some wonderful examples of all of these to handle, a carving set with carved antler handles, an 18th century silver handled knife and fork, bone handled three pronged forks etc. He entertained us with stories of fine dining in the past. The term “upper crust” originates from the ceremony of cutting the upper crust off the bread to present to the top table for approval, before offering to everyone else.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable and interesting evening with plenty of questions and opportunity for follow up conversations with Paul afterwards.