Thursday in Sorrento

 

 

 

Pasta and the Birth of the Four-tined Fork

 

Two-tined forks were used in Europe during the Middle Ages to transfer meat from platter to diner; otherwise fingers were the means of transferring food to the mouth. The three-tined fork, along with good cooking, was brought to France from Italy by Catherine de Medici, wife of Henry IV, but Ferdinand IV, King of Naples, introduced the four-tined fork, which is still in use today.

Ferdinand was perhaps the city’s friendliest, least refined king. He enjoyed mixing with commoners and eating pasta on the street, which was done by taking the pasta in hand, tilting back the head, and dropping the long, dripping strings into the open mouth, a messy business. Still, having fallen in love with pasta, Ferdinand wanted it served every day at court.

His queen, Hapsburg princess Maria Carolina, who had been trying to Frenchify court manners, was appalled. She didn’t want the courtiers at her table dropping pasta into their mouths by hand, so to pacify her, the king ordered his steward to devise an implement that would get the pasta from table to mouth without use of the fingers. Thus, the four-tined fork was born. The courtiers loved it and pasta. Their hands may have stayed clean enough to please the finicky queen, but they did tend to splash sauce on the tablecloths. Ah, well.

Carolyn Blue,
“Have Fork, Will Travel,”
Baton Rouge Call-Register