No elbows on the table—and other burning holiday mealtime issues

Not so long ago, only crude spoons, knives, pewter mugs and roughly carved wooden platters or troughs were used in any real sense for western dining. Along with those were certain dining habits thought to be proper—serving the foundation for manners today (see previous entry). Royalty and nobles, and eventually just the wealthy, tended to influence the dining behavior of the broader masses, and inevitably set the dining standard for special meals. So right here, right now, we answer those top of mind questions about left versus right when it comes to utensils; napkins in the lap; the ever persistent "no elbows on the table"; and what a charger is. And for the bonus round—the pinkie finger when drinking tea.

Why the fork on the left and knife on the right? Originally, the right hand was used for eating because it was considered the "sanitary" hand, as opposed to the left (which in some cultures was used for cleaning the backside). So, the idea was you picked up the fork with your left and the knife with your right, cut your food and then switched the fork to your right hand. This particular eating style has evolved into the "American" style, whereas, the "European" or "Continental" style consists of continuing to hold the fork in the left and knife in the right, pushing your food into the fork and not switching back and forth.
 So why do I have to put a napkin in my lap? Consider yourself fortunate it's as small as it is. Before the invention of the fork, napkins were half the size of the dining table because eating was just such a hugely messy experience. You had to wipe your hands somewhere. If you couldn't afford linens, well, you just slobbered all over you sleeves.  But the fork made eating a lot less messy, hence a smaller napkin.
 "Don't put your elbows on the table!" Its origins are a bit clouded in history, but the basic theory is that it makes you appear as if you're guarding your food—sort of a caveman hunch. Of course, when you're dining with family and friends, hopefully you aren't having to fend them off from your plate, but who knows? Dining has, in theory, evolved into a gracious and social experience, not a defensive match.
 What is a charger, you say? Well, chargers (oversized plates) were originally used for formal occasions like state dinners and weddings, and now used to place the appetizer/salad/soup course on so as to eliminate the space between the plate and the diner (no unsightly drips, etc. on the table). The charger is never meant to be used for serving food, and is technically to be removed from the table once the entree is served. But, in more informal settings, hosts like the eye candy appeal they afford to the overall look for their table, and often opt to keep it in place until dessert is served.
 Pinkies up? No way. Totally pretentious. Tuck that pinkie back in.

Smelling other people's wine and other odd mealtime no-no's

Holidays are on the way, meaning families will gather for sit down meals. Elbows off the table, napkin in your lap, and the in general, not at the dinner table will be heard all across the nation. But just where did these rules come from? Well, from the masters of eating—the Italians.

Eating is a physical need, but human mealtime has evolved into a social ritual, and driven by culture. For western Europeans and western culture, part of that is ritual at least meant to promote more sanitary conditions. The Renaissance was that time in history when Europe climbed out of a rather nasty period—the Dark Ages. And leading the way were the Italian city-states with a cultural revolution that included dinging habits. Italian poet Giovanni della Casa advised in his book on table manners, "Galateo," published in 1558:

"One should not comb his hair nor wash his hands in public... The exception to this is the washing of the hands when done before sitting down to dinner, for then it should be done in full sight of others, even if you do not need to wash them at all, so that whoever dips into the same bowl as you will be certain of your cleanliness."

Wise advice, considering that one's hands were also one's dining utensils. Forks scarcely existed, or at most were used only for taking meat from the serving dish." Indeed, forks were initially viewed as excessively refined or, in the case of men, girly. Still, the fork custom began in Italy and became popular throughout the peninsula, although the utensil was slow to catch on in Northern Europe—go figure with those brutish Norsemen, barely a few centuries beyond their Viking era. As a result, wide acceptance of forks getting food from plate to mouth didn't become the rage until the 17th century, but mostly among the aristocracy who could afford them.

Examples of Renaissance period forks.

The fork’s sister utensil is the spoon, which was communally used, making the etiquette of eating soups a very delicate matter. "If what is given is rather fluid," Dutch theologian, Erasmus of Rotterdam, writes, "take it on a spoon for tasting and return the spoon after wiping it on a napkin."

On respecting fellow diners' personal space, Giovanni Della Casa advises, "It is also an unsuitable habit to put one's nose over someone else's glass of wine or food to smell it." And again, from Erasmus: "It is rude to offer someone what you have half eaten yourself; it is boorish to re-dip half-eaten bread into the soup." Even modern science shows that double dipping partially eaten foods is a great means of spreading bacteria. It certainly gives you an idea of what Renaissance society was trying to improve upon—and how far we've come since.

How does this relate to furnishing? Simple, how we do things, our lifestyles and our rituals often dictate how we furnish a room—and to keep things seasonal, the next post will focus on the dining room.

Vast selection—few real choices.

Flexibility in design has become more difficult to achieve, forcing designers to settle more and more—settle for something close enough, rather than just right. Behind the “why” are a lot of reasons, but one is that most manufacturers depend on imports that only come one way, making it harder for designers to stick with an original design scheme; even forcing a mid-stream change in color schemes to accommodate pieces that are available, instead of maintaining the original design integrity. 

There are vast choices on the Internet—or are there? Web shopping offers a lot of sources. But those choices are really just sites picking up on the same “what you see is what you get” merchandise. Sure, there is more, but it’s more of the same rather than more choice—or at least flexibility in choice. 

More of anything does not necessarily give you more choice just more. Flexibility of choice is the key to a good design. And furniture needs the same flexibility as any other aspect of the design job, the perfect color, the right fabrics, and ideal lighting. They work together, not separately. 

So what does that mean to you. Well, we all know things in the design business are constantly going in and out of style. So I’ve developed an interest in creating pieces that should exist, but don’t for whatever reason. One such piece is an executive chair that needed to have a mesh seat and back for the comfort of the user, yet needed to function in a very traditional design scheme. The challenge was to take an ultra contemporary chair and soften it into a more transitional feel.

This same process can be used all kinds of products, from chairs to floor screens. Products can be fine-tuned to the needs of the design, instead of making the design conform to the product at hand. But this can only be done when you have real choices for pieces, available in various grades and offerings of fabric, trim, and finish. 

    

It's Alive!

Buying or specifying furniture is not the same as it was twenty years ago, or even ten. Choices, sources, and quality are all over the map. You can still find showrooms, although fewer and fewer, where you can sit with a professional and really customize a piece of furniture—blending your selections of finish, fabric, or trim and other options. But it has to come in faster and at the right price. In no universe will you ever be able to special order a Karges piece and have it delivered by dinner time. And while customers often want to “walk out’ with their choice, there are reasons to be patient and wait a few weeks or so for delivery.

To that end, I’ve been working on a new website for more than year. And after a year of development, I am thrilled to announce it is up and running! It’s the next evolution for McKenzie Galleries & Commercial, which has a history of serving both commercial and residential project clients, small to large installations for many, many decades. The URL is www.mckenziegalleries.com, and on it are more than 1,000 items. Not everything we offer, but a lot!

The site is unique in that it is completely interactive.  Visitors have the ability to choose from almost as many features for their furniture as available in a traditional brick and mortar showroom.

The great thing about this is you if you don’t like the finish or fabric on the displayed piece, you can pick from a wide selection of wood and metal finishes, fabric and leather choices, as well as trim and more. This platform also calculates, or recalculates as needed, the price as options are chosen. 

Okay, other businesses and industries have developed complex websites, yes, but few have the complexity that furniture requires to meet an individual’s need.  So this may well be the first of its kind for furniture, I hope you’ll think so.

Give it a whirl and let me know what you think.

Max McKenzie