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Cutlery: Silver cutlery or stainless steel cutlery – Are you a pea chaser?
Etiquette is very much a matter of upbringing. But how you use your cutlery can say a lot about you. Whether you use silver cutlery or stainless steel cutlery reveals whether or not you’re a fine diner who sees takes their dinner parties seriously or not. But even the every-day stainless steel cutlery is so beautifully made and designed that ensuring you have good quality sets can make every meal time feel special. Cutlery – A tradition of manners Eating of course comes naturally, but how we eat is one way of examining the history of modern manners. Cutlery and fine dining became more than just sharing food, but a social signalling system. As such, when it comes to using cutlery there are certain knives, forks and spoons for particular foods. A four or five-course meal can be baffling for many of us used to eating our dinner off our laps. But cutlery plays an important part in many cultures, not just Britain. In Japan, there is a ‘correct’ way of using the fork – those who follow etiquette in that country wouldn’t dream of putting their index finger on the curvature of the fork. But mostly, we pick up etiquette around the dining table from our parents, schools or through common sense. Etiquette and society According to the editor-in-chief of Debrett’s - the modern authority on all matters etiquette, taste and achievement – manners are necessary to society in the same way engine oil is necessary for an engine: without it, things seize up. But how we use cutlery, whether its silver cutlery or stainless steel cutlery, is changing; as technology develops, our habits change. TV, mobile phones, laptops…technology has entered our homes. Instead of laying the table properly, complete with cutlery and glasses, we end up with our plates perched on our knees in front of the box. Cutlery – A matter of manners But setting the table with your best cutlery every day is a way of dedicating care and attention to your dinner time – a time to sit and meet with family, to spend time, discuss problems, converse and catch up, as well of course to eat. It may not matter in today’s society how we hold our knives and forks, but using cutlery and sitting at the table is one way of holding onto time-honoured traditions. Manners and etiquette are not just about snobbery. In fact some may argue that the decline of manners has resulted in a whole host of discourteous behaviour from road rage to queue rage. Chasing peas Manners and etiquette isn’t just about out-dated class systems – it shows courteousness and consideration. If your children chase their peas, bang their spoons and eat with their mouths open, you might consider sending them on a cutlery course. A head butler at one of London’s top hotels decided to put an end to bad cutlery manners by starting his own children’s etiquette classes! And at Brighton College, teenagers are being taught which cutlery to use at dinner and other good table manners. The course was introduced after a survey of company directors said that graduates displayed impoliteness and poor table manners – something that reflects on their career prospects as it projects an unprofessional image. Glazebrook & Co specialises in offering quintessentially British silver and stainless steel cutlery of the very highest quality. For the ultimate wedding gift, Glazebrook has a range of cutlery, silver cutlery and stainless steel cutlery. Glazebrook takes pride in not only supplying the finest products, but in serving the needs of a broad client base; from the individual private buyer to the most prestigious of corporate and trade customers worldwide. The comprehensive range caters to a variety of tastes: from time-honoured, traditional English styles in solid sterling silver and silver plate, to more contemporary matt and mirror finish designs in ever practical stainless steel.
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