Behold the Future of Eating: The Chork

Behold the Future of Eating: The Chork

In the beginning of eating, there was the hand, enabling fistfuls of food to be moved to the mouth.

Then there was the knife, still an admittedly handy eating implement, followed by the spoon, a variation on the cupped hand and really a rather superfluous tool when you consider that you can gain the same effect with most foods by simply tipping bowl to mouth.

From Orient and Occident sprang almost simultaneously chopsticks and fork, one for precisely plucking morels from a plate, the other for stabbing and shoveling.

At the National Restaurant Show in Chicago last Sunday, I was introduced to…the Chork, a brilliant combination of chopsticks and fork, enabling one to both meticulously pick out single pieces of food as well as pierce/scoop larger mouthfuls as necessary.



As a side benefit, the connector at the top of the Chork permits novices to practice using chopsticks in “training mode.” As manual skills are acquired, the Chork can be broken apart on the fork-end, freeing up chopsticks to be used in the more traditional way (and when moved back together, the fork-ends join to function, again, as a fork).

I’ve been eating with the Chork for the last few days. I like it. Had a stir-fry for lunch, and the sticks were great for eating big pieces first; the fork-end came in handy cleaning up the final sauce-soaked rice bits.

Also at the NRA show were off-beat items like costumes for restaurateurs who feel they’ve exhausted other routes to humiliating staff (I’m pretty sure Justin Timberlake was wearing the brown beer outfit on SNL last Saturday for the “Get your liquor on” sketch):



…and French fries with designed-in ketchup seasoning.



Many vendors at NRA this year offered e-menus for electronically ordering food, paying the bill and avoiding uncomfortable human contact.

Along with the Taste of Melrose Park, this is the most surreal fest of the year.

David Hammond wrote:At the National Restaurant Show in Chicago last Sunday, I was introduced to…the Chork, a brilliant combination of chopsticks and fork, enabling one to both meticulously pick out single pieces of food as well as pierce/scoop larger mouthfuls as necessary.

Huh. So this is a new product? I'm fairly certain I saw chopsticks with fork ends on the market at least 10 years ago. As for training chopsticks in general, there must be steady, significant demand because I read about a new design probably once a week in my Google Reader. Studio Dreimann's SL27 LINK, for example, looks somewhat silly and maybe not particularly helpful, but I've encountered many a server in restaurants who try (i.e. struggle) to serve bread rolls using two utensils and could really benefit from this product.






Photos via Yanko Design

I personally don't need chopstick trainers, but I have been tempted to buy these chopsticks that repeatedly snap open. No surprise since I'm also addicted to the sound of bubble wrap--the snapping open of disposable chopsticks is one of my very favorite food-related sounds.

David Hammond wrote:At the National Restaurant Show in Chicago last Sunday, I was introduced to…the Chork, a brilliant combination of chopsticks and fork, enabling one to both meticulously pick out single pieces of food as well as pierce/scoop larger mouthfuls as necessary.

Mr. Hammond,

That's the greatest invention since the spork! I love the cross-cultural synergy.

Fools! You do not comprehend the forces you are toying with.

stevez wrote:

David Hammond wrote:At the National Restaurant Show in Chicago last Sunday, I was introduced to…the Chork, a brilliant combination of chopsticks and fork, enabling one to both meticulously pick out single pieces of food as well as pierce/scoop larger mouthfuls as necessary.

Mr. Hammond,

That's the greatest invention since the spork! I love the cross-cultural synergy.

stevez, I agree. I'm so glad the world didn't end last week so I can live to use the Chork...at least until December 21, 2012.

stevez wrote:That's the greatest invention since the spork! I love the cross-cultural synergy.

Now all they need to do is cross the chork with a spoon for the ultimate in utility... chsork? chorkoon?

A bit in a McSweeney's piece, "Itineraries: Infrequent Flier," reminded me of this thread:

McSweeney's wrote:I was developing some ideas for prototypes for new utensils anyway. Off the record. You know what sporks are, right? So I was looking at these chopsticks and I said to myself, "chopoons." No-—"foricks." No—"chopknifes."

And that last one got me worried about weaponization. So that's why it is my secret airport vice. They can be weaponized. One end is sharper than the other.

-Dan

McDonald's is touting a new french fry-centric utensil — the "frork" — as part of a campaign to promote its new line of burgers. The chain says the utensil has an opening where people can insert some fries, which act as edible tines. McDonald's says it will give away 100,000 of them to people who buy the new burgers starting May 5.

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/ ... ew-burgers