SPOON FED
Joanna Stover
Although innovative uses for spoons are still being discovered and introduced, a spoon is typically an eating, mixing, or measuring utensil. A cereal or soup eater would struggle to effectively eat their bowl of respective liquid or semi-liquid without a spoon, therefore the tool is invaluable as a consumptive aid.
The spoon has long enjoyed a prosperous and symbiotic relationship with the bowl. Most dishes requiring the use of a spoon also require a bowl to act as a vessel. For example, broccoli and cheese soup will be eaten most efficiently with a spoon, and held most efficiently in a bowl.
Hayley Price, a restaurant and bar manager of Melbourne, boasts of years of experience in the hospitality business. She views spoons as pivotal in the hospitality world.
‘Without them, you would see an impact on business. Spoons are effective,’ Price said of the utensil.
In the kitchen, the spoon is an indispensible tool. Philip Bremner, chief cook at The Social in the inner city Melbourne suburb of Windsor, gushes about its usefulness.Bremner says, ‘It’s an integral part of the kitchen and of my life. My favourite are the pretty, delicate spoons for adding the glory bit of the dish—the finishing touch.’
As a cook and a diner, the impact of the spoon on Bremner’s life extends from the kitchen to the table. ‘The spoon changes the potential of your meal,’ he says.
For some, talk of spoons brings to mind painful memories and a visible pang of regret. Steven Borovnjak recalls with an afflicted expression the day he found himself in the wilderness of the Dargo High Plains without a spoon.
"Who am I?"
Three years ago, Borovnjak and some companions travelled to visit the old gold mining towns of the 19th century. After a day of sight seeing, the group prepared a venison casserole for supper at their remote campsite.
“That’s when we realized that we didn’t have any spoons,’ says Borovnjak, and relates the ensuing episode of twenty campers passing around a cooking spatula in order to eat dinner.
He says glumly, ‘I would go back and change it if I could. I would have brought spoons.’
In a less technical evaluation of the purpose of spoons, the practice of spoon collecting may be mentioned. Spoon collecting has long been accepted as a legitimate hobby and commemorative spoons are available at most places of particular tourist interest across Earth. Such spoons bear the name of a city, country, memorial, etc. and are traditionally teaspoon-sized or approximately 5ml.
It has been argued that the practice is an insult to the mission of the spoon, but enthusiasts insist that collecting spoons is in no way detrimental to the spoon’s reputation as a practical utensil. To voice your concerns on the issue, contact the National Spoon Collector’s Liaison Committee or the less prestigious Northeastern Spoon Collector’s Guild.
Ever a versatile implement, the spoon is commonly utilized as a musical instrument, as an object to balance atop one’s nose, an orange-peeler, or a prop in a fast-paced, multi-player game called ‘Spoons.’ It transcends ideals that restrict a piece of silverware to a life of perpetually being washed, dried, set beside a dish, used, and washed again. If ever you feel you have spiraled out of control and your world is upside-down, look into a spoon, turn it from concave side to convex side, and watch all order be restored.
