“Consider the Fork” – Did forks give us bad teeth?

The folks over at the TheAtlantic.com have a great interview with Bee Wilson about her new book “Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat“.

They ask if somehow the introduction of eating utensils like proper flatware introduced problems rather than solutions to our teeth. A part of her response:

Until around 250 years ago in the West, archaeological evidence suggests that most human beings had an edge-to-edge bite, similar to apes. In other words, our teeth were aligned liked a guillotine, with the top layer clashing against the bottom layer. Then, quite suddenly, this alignment of the jaw changed: We developed an overbite, which is still normal today. The top layer of teeth fits over the bottom layer like a lid on a box.

What changed 250 years ago was the adoption of the knife and fork, which meant that we were cutting chewy food into small morsels before eating it. Previously, when eating something chewy such as meat, crusty bread or hard cheese, it would have been clamped between the jaws, then sliced with a knife or ripped with a hand — a style of eating Professor Brace has called “stuff-and-cut.

Read the full interview at the TheAtlantic.com or check out her book from Amazon.

Shape/Form designer cutlery by Lukas Peet

This is beautiful work, I’ll let the artist speak:

“A set of cutlery that embodies my personal conclusions of shape and form.

Achieved by the graphical two-dimensional shape of the top surface that allows the fluid three-dimensional form to hang from. While contrasting each other they ultimately find a complimenting balance as they influence one another.

Finished in sterling silver and Zirconia (technical ceramic) they relate to traditional tableware such as fine china and silverware.”

It is price on request because of limited production. He is looking for a producer/manufacture to be able to bring this product to the public.

More information at Lukas Peet Design website

The best Ice Cream Scoop from OXO

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve bent and destroyed a perfectly good kitchen spoon while trying to scoop ice cream. Then there are the cheap plastic ice cream scoops that have snapped apart in my hands leaving shards of plastic in my precious ice cream. Then the so-called easy serve scoops that have those little levers that are supposed to force out the ball of ice cream. That broke too.

None of them work and leave me screaming about ice cream (see what I did there?).

The best ice cream scoop from OXO is solid stainless steel and has a slightly pointed tip to dig into that hard ice cream. It has a non-slip grip that works for the left and right handed people in the family. Leave it in clean hot water for a while and that solid piece of stainless will warm up to do an even better job on really sub-zero ice cream.

OXO Good Grips Solid Stainless Steel Ice Cream Scoop

Bite Silverware – Awareness of starvation and obesity.

Mark A. Reigelman II has created this Bite silverware as part of a design competition. From what research I’ve done, it never went into public production. But it is a gorgeous design either way that has a strong message.

In the designer’s own words:
‘as a global culture, it is our duty to be concerned with worldwide epidemics such as starvation and obesity. each day millions of individuals lay in hunger while millions more
are wastefully overeating. this set of ‘bitten’ silverware highlights the daunting reality of both worldly plagues.’

Visit Mark’s portfolio here…