Fork on the left
19/09/25 01:45
It is a long story that would take too much space to tell here, but we have two cutlery drawers. One, in the kitchen, has plenty of knives, forks, and spoons to set our dining table. It also has a generous assortment of serving utensils. The second, in a sideboard or buffet in our dining area, also has enough basic cutlery to set out a table. Unlike the set in our kitchen, this set has enough dessert or salad forks to serve a group of people. We don’t need two sets of cutlery. We have two sets because of the accumulations of a 52-year marriage, more than a plan to furnish our dining table in a particular manner.
Our son and his family are very busy with four children and two working parents. They have adopted particular efficiencies to make their lives work. One of those efficiencies is that they keep containers of knives, forks, and spoons on their big table. It saves them having to have a cutlery drawer, makes unloading the dishwasher simple, and means that anyone who wants a piece of cutlery has easy access to it. It also means that meals that don’t require certain pieces of cutlery don’t result in clean cutlery having to be washed. It works well for their family and provides a welcoming table for guests.
At our house, however, our grandchildren are learning to set the table. Forks go to the left of the plate. Knives to the right with the cutting side of the blade facing the plate. The spoon goes next to the knife. “Why do we do it this way?” “It is a tradition. It is the way we always did it at our house when I was growing up. It is the way your father set the table when he was a boy.” “What if we don’t need all this silverware?” “No worries, we have a dishwasher.” “How can I remember which side?” “Fork has four letters, left has four letters. A knife and a spoon have five letters each. Right has five letters.” When I explain that last bit, I have to be careful not to wander off into how to tell the port and starboard sides of a boat and which side gets the green light and which side gets the red light, but the number of letters in the words is a clue.
Our table can seat ten if we squeeze a bit. When we have more, some are sitting at the picnic table on the deck or at another table that we set up in the study. We love to have guests, and a bit of crowding for a dinner at our house doesn’t seem like a problem.
While there are differences between dinner at our house and dinner at our son’s house, they have more in common with each other than dinner at Windsor Castle. I read an article about the state banquet at Windsor Castle during the recent state visit of Donald Trump to the U.K. According to the CBC, 160 guests were seated at a 50-meter-long table. It’s a pretty big building to have a dining hall with a table that is nearly a city block long. The article went on to say that the table was set with 1,452 pieces of cutlery. Even with 160 guests, that comes to more than nine pieces for each guest. I assume that some of the cutlery was for serving dishes.
Not everyone needs a pickle fork. Still, even seven or eight pieces of cutlery for each place setting is more than I know how to arrange properly. The rule is that the dessert fork is placed next to the plate at the top, with its handle facing left, and the dessert spoon is placed above the fork, with its handle facing right. Add in a salad fork to the left of the dinner fork, and that would be six pieces of cutlery. I’m not sure where the other two would go. Maybe there is a steak knife between the plate and the dinner knife. It’s England, so I think you use both hands to eat with forks remaining in the left hand and knives and spoons used by the right hand. I would have to concentrate really hard to keep from switching sides.
At the dinner, there were speeches. We like to talk over our dinner, and we begin our meal with a prayer, but we generally don’t have speeches. I wonder if the acoustics are excellent in Windsor Castle, or do the speakers have to project their voices well? Maybe they use a PA system. Let’s see, does the microphone go above the dessert spoon? It is unlikely that I will ever be invited to a state dinner in Windsor Castle, so I don’t need to know all of the specifics.
There are numerous protocols and rules of etiquette for participants in state dinners at Windsor Castle. Speeches are supposed to be cordial and filled with compliments and principles shared in common. Warm references to things held in common are the preferred topics. King Charles, in his speech, implied the U.S. shares Britain’s perspective on the War in Ukraine, saying, “In two world wars, we fought together to defeat the forces of tyranny. Today, as tyranny once again threatens Europe, we and our allies stand together in support of Ukraine, to deter aggression and secure peace.” President Trump didn’t mention Ukraine in his speech. The King spoke of the “precious opportunity to safeguard and to restore the wonders and beauty of nature for the generations who follow.” Trump didn’t mention the environment. The King referred to shared values. Trump boasted of the strength of the US economy and noted that the two nations share the same language.
According to the article that I read, this was the first state visit in the UK where the Beating Retreat ceremony was performed. Beating Retreat heralds the closing of the gates and the lowering of flags at the end of the day. The article didn’t mention why the ceremony was chosen for this visit, but I have my suspicions. I’ve heard several of Donald Trump’s speeches. Let’s say that he tends to go off script and go on and on and on with a lot of topics that don’t make a lot of sense. There needs to be some official ceremony to say, “That’s enough, let's all go to bed.”
I wonder if the President knew how to use each piece of cutlery that was provided to him.
Our son and his family are very busy with four children and two working parents. They have adopted particular efficiencies to make their lives work. One of those efficiencies is that they keep containers of knives, forks, and spoons on their big table. It saves them having to have a cutlery drawer, makes unloading the dishwasher simple, and means that anyone who wants a piece of cutlery has easy access to it. It also means that meals that don’t require certain pieces of cutlery don’t result in clean cutlery having to be washed. It works well for their family and provides a welcoming table for guests.
At our house, however, our grandchildren are learning to set the table. Forks go to the left of the plate. Knives to the right with the cutting side of the blade facing the plate. The spoon goes next to the knife. “Why do we do it this way?” “It is a tradition. It is the way we always did it at our house when I was growing up. It is the way your father set the table when he was a boy.” “What if we don’t need all this silverware?” “No worries, we have a dishwasher.” “How can I remember which side?” “Fork has four letters, left has four letters. A knife and a spoon have five letters each. Right has five letters.” When I explain that last bit, I have to be careful not to wander off into how to tell the port and starboard sides of a boat and which side gets the green light and which side gets the red light, but the number of letters in the words is a clue.
Our table can seat ten if we squeeze a bit. When we have more, some are sitting at the picnic table on the deck or at another table that we set up in the study. We love to have guests, and a bit of crowding for a dinner at our house doesn’t seem like a problem.
While there are differences between dinner at our house and dinner at our son’s house, they have more in common with each other than dinner at Windsor Castle. I read an article about the state banquet at Windsor Castle during the recent state visit of Donald Trump to the U.K. According to the CBC, 160 guests were seated at a 50-meter-long table. It’s a pretty big building to have a dining hall with a table that is nearly a city block long. The article went on to say that the table was set with 1,452 pieces of cutlery. Even with 160 guests, that comes to more than nine pieces for each guest. I assume that some of the cutlery was for serving dishes.
Not everyone needs a pickle fork. Still, even seven or eight pieces of cutlery for each place setting is more than I know how to arrange properly. The rule is that the dessert fork is placed next to the plate at the top, with its handle facing left, and the dessert spoon is placed above the fork, with its handle facing right. Add in a salad fork to the left of the dinner fork, and that would be six pieces of cutlery. I’m not sure where the other two would go. Maybe there is a steak knife between the plate and the dinner knife. It’s England, so I think you use both hands to eat with forks remaining in the left hand and knives and spoons used by the right hand. I would have to concentrate really hard to keep from switching sides.
At the dinner, there were speeches. We like to talk over our dinner, and we begin our meal with a prayer, but we generally don’t have speeches. I wonder if the acoustics are excellent in Windsor Castle, or do the speakers have to project their voices well? Maybe they use a PA system. Let’s see, does the microphone go above the dessert spoon? It is unlikely that I will ever be invited to a state dinner in Windsor Castle, so I don’t need to know all of the specifics.
There are numerous protocols and rules of etiquette for participants in state dinners at Windsor Castle. Speeches are supposed to be cordial and filled with compliments and principles shared in common. Warm references to things held in common are the preferred topics. King Charles, in his speech, implied the U.S. shares Britain’s perspective on the War in Ukraine, saying, “In two world wars, we fought together to defeat the forces of tyranny. Today, as tyranny once again threatens Europe, we and our allies stand together in support of Ukraine, to deter aggression and secure peace.” President Trump didn’t mention Ukraine in his speech. The King spoke of the “precious opportunity to safeguard and to restore the wonders and beauty of nature for the generations who follow.” Trump didn’t mention the environment. The King referred to shared values. Trump boasted of the strength of the US economy and noted that the two nations share the same language.
According to the article that I read, this was the first state visit in the UK where the Beating Retreat ceremony was performed. Beating Retreat heralds the closing of the gates and the lowering of flags at the end of the day. The article didn’t mention why the ceremony was chosen for this visit, but I have my suspicions. I’ve heard several of Donald Trump’s speeches. Let’s say that he tends to go off script and go on and on and on with a lot of topics that don’t make a lot of sense. There needs to be some official ceremony to say, “That’s enough, let's all go to bed.”
I wonder if the President knew how to use each piece of cutlery that was provided to him.