Wetaskiwin District Heritage Museum Centre & City of Wetaskiwin Archives

Come ‘fork’ and learn about this mighty utensil! What may be a surprise to some, the fork is considered a recent invention originating in the Middle East and Byzantine Empire during the Middle Ages. Although the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans used a two-tined cooking tool resembling a carving fork, they failed to apply it at the ‘dinner table.’ One of the first written references to the fork was in 1004 when the Greek niece of the Byzantine emperor was shamed for vanity when she used a golden fork at her wedding. The local Venetian clergy scornfully acknowledged the opulence and said, “God in his wisdom has provided man with natural forks – his fingers!” While the spoon and knife predated the fork for centuries, by the 1500s the fork would stick around in the palaces of the aristocracy or wealthy. However, it was still uncommon in the American colonies by the 17th century to use a fork because it was difficult to spear food as a result of blunt-tipped knives. They resorted to employing the spoon with their left hand to steady the food for cutting with their right-hand knife, then switching the spoon to their right hand for scooping. It is this ‘zig-zag’ method that prevails for polite dining in North America. If you are staring at the proverbial ‘fork in the road’ and deciding what to do this cold month, get tickets to our Culinary Cultures of Home on January 18 at The Glen’s Grill and taste the worldly imagination of a local chef.