To think less of ....

[HappyAgainOneDay]

...a restaurant that does not provide a dessert fork with the dessert spoon for pudding / dessert / sweet? It doesn't matter what the pudding is; a fork ought to be there.

Holds hands up to owning a full canteen of dessert forks and knives.

I own some little forks. I'm not sure if they are dessert forks or for little food.

I think a fork would complicate my eating of ice cream.

RedToothBrush, we have some dessert forks. They were a wedding present. We don't actually use them, though. If it's a pudding that's difficult to eat with a spoon (pie, for example), we just put out ordinary forks.

I have dessert forks - 'tis what I am used to. I would eat trifle with a spoon and fork. I don't like only bring given a spoon for eating puddings with - in fact I would far rather it were a fork than a spoon for a lot of things. You can cut through the pastry of a tart or pie with more control than with a spoon. I frequently ask for a fork as well if I have pudding in a restaurant and am only given a spoon.

Love this thread. I have learned so much about fork usage tonight. Is anyone familiar with Private Eye magazine's 'Me and My Spoon' feature, where celebs had to answer spoon related questions? I think there should now be a MN 'Me and My Fork' column. So here goes:

Which was the very first fork you remember using?
Which of your forks do you treasure most?
What role do you think forks have played in modern European history?
Which of your forks would you save in a fire?
Do you eat jelly with a fork?
Do you own a designated jelly fork?
Which fork has been the biggest influence in your life so far?

Absolutely PML

I bought some little pudding forks from my local charity shop recently. I've been waiting for a tart or cheesecake-ish pudding, but might just get them out for the ice cream and berries tomorrow .

I don't have any strong fork opinions, but I do have a favourite teaspoon. DD has one too, but it's not the same as mine. They are both ones from my DGMiL's cutlery drawer which for some reason we got given when she died.

melted you said "I'd only expect it in very upmarket English restaurants. Is it pretty upper class etiquette, the desert fork? The only people I've known to use forks for puddings are upper class. I'm not very up on all this though, so pardon my ignorance."

No, it's ordinary, common or garden classless normal, to be seen anywhere. Certainly not only for people who have attended Finishing School. I'm amazed by all the negative replies and wonder where all of these restaurants are that don't set their tables like this. Even a tablecloth isn't a pre-requisite, I've been to pubs whose wooden tables are laid with the same cutlery layout as a restaurant with starched tablecloths and napkins.

blanklook well you live and learn! I really thought it was just the upper classes who used a fork for puddings. I remember a book in the 80's called The Sloane Rangers Handbook and remember a bit in there about the aristocracy and upper classes using forks for desert. Ever since reading that I presumed that's how it was - that no other classes used them. I'm going to be paying attention from now on to what cutlery is on the table when I eat out.

CosmicDespot So you bought some 'little' pudding forks from a charity shop. Well, errrrm, could they have been pastry forks? Dessert forks are usually the same size / length as dessert spoons while pastry forks are somewhere between teaspoons and dessert forks in size (depending on maker). Pastry forks have a shaped end with a small 'blade' and three (or so) tines prongs. The small blade bit is used to cut a piece off a cake and the prongs are then used to pick up the piece of cake to eat.

I'm enjoying myself today.

They could very possibly be pastry forks, going by your description. I must say I'm impressed by your cutlery knowledge! My step MiL is the only person I know who cares about these things, but she also says serviette, toilet and lounge, and is pretty Hyacinth Bucket-ish.

So are pudding forks just, actually, forks? No groovily shaped tines?

Here they are. Definitely pastry forks.

Pudding forks are just forks but slightly smaller than a main course fork

Happy - do you require stabilising cutlery to eat cake or do you manage with a pastry fork alone.

Please don't get too , but I have dessert forks andpastry forks (which hitherto I have always called cake forks).

As do I. I have more cutlery than you can shake a stick at. It lives in a very heavy canteen and comes out about three times a year.

I've got a canteen of cutlery. How do I know if the smaller forks go with the fish knives or with the pudding spoons? Should there be three sorts of forks in there?!

Cosmic do you have fish knives? If so, the forks may have funny indentations between the handle and the tines like the image here.

I don't have fish forks and knives as I've never thought them necessary, although I do have a big knife and fork for serving fish.

I have 3 teaspoons, 3 big spoons, 3 forks, 3 butter knives, about 100000 chopping knives (because I have a thing for good knives) and that's it. I have no dessert spoons and all this malarky.

To be fair, if you have a blob of jam in your tapioca, the fork will make a splendid swirly pattern when you mix it.

Dessert? That's technically the fruit course after pudding, I think.

Pudding fork, then is more naice?

Toads I didn't think I should mention the dessert / pudding debate as I thought I might look even more pedantic

I agree - really you would have dessert after pudding. Here (well in Oxford anyway) dessert generally consists of lovely fruit, expensive chocolates, Port, Madeira etc.

I don't have fish forks and knives. One I don't like fish particularly so wouldn't serve it. Plus I could never quite get past the 'pass the fish forks Norman' connotations.

Err .. so you know in a restaurant, when the cutlery you get for your starter is a bit smaller than the cutlery for your main course... are they dessert knives and forks, or special starter knives and forks?