Fork

While looking at my box of spaghetti, I could not stop thinking about the history of that missing instrument for my lunch.

As a kitchen utensil, fork is generally believed to be originated from the Roman Empire, while the personal table fork probably began in the Byzantine Empire. Around the turn from the first to second millennium, the use of dinning fork spread the Middle East and then back to the southern Europe. Nonetheless, it became popular on the dining table of Italians only by the 14th century – shortly after Marco Polo returned from the Yuan Empire and noodles evolved to become spaghetti .

(Without chopsticks, fork is obviously a better instrument than spoon when pasta is served.)

By the way, fork did not become common in northern Europe until the 18th century, and was not common in North America another one hundred years later. In fact, if you have the opportunity to visit the dining room of Nash's House of Shakespeare at Stratford, you would find only knife and spoon on the table – fork had not yet crossed the English Channel at 1616.

PS. As almost everything, there is a remarkable difference across the Atlantic in the way people hold the dinning fork. In short, food can be lifted by holding it on top of the tines, which are often curved slightly; Americans generally hold the fork with tines curving up, while Europeans hold it the other way round.