About the Collection

We, Homo Sapiens, have been using kitchen utensils for quite a while now. This collection consists of various kitchen utensils ranging from the most basic and versatile knife to those used by dessert lovers today – ice cream scoops. This collection symbolises the evolution of these different tools ever since the dawn of the Stone Age, almost three million years ago and how each has become significant in our kitchen cabinets in this present day. Furthermore, these tools represent the evolution from early materials to kitchen utensils today, made from iron and steel, nickel, silver, tin and aluminium.

Gordon Ramsey's Spatula

Kitchen spatulas are a tool resembling a knife with a broad flexible blade that is used mostly for spreading or mixing soft substances. A kitchen utensil with a long handle and a wide blade is used for scraping batter from a bowl or for lifting and flipping food. This particular tool was used by British celebrity chef, restaurateur and television personality, Gordon James Ramsay, during his time working as a commis chef at the Wroxton House Hotel in the early 1980s where he prepared several dishes using this as a tool in the kitchen for his meals.

Ancient Fork

The fork is a piece of cutlery or kitchenware that consists of a handle and several narrow tines on the end. This utensil appears as metal and is used to assist the lifting of food to the mouth. It is mostly used by spearing food on the tines, which themselves are often curved slightly. Some of the earliest known uses of forks with eating food occurred in Ancient Egypt, where large forks were used utensils for cooking. The word fork itself comes from the Latin furca, meaning “pitchfork”

King Edward I's spoon

A spoon is a kitchen utensil consisting of a small shallow bowl oval or round at the end of a handle. For machine made spoons, the basic shape is cut out from a sheet of sterling silver, nickel silver alloy or stainless steel. Spoons are one of the oldest eating utensils on the planet and this particular spoon was found from King Edward I’s wardrobe England during 1259. This was a symbol to demonstrate wealth and power rather than for eating as the coronation of King Edward was anointed by this ceremonial spoon.

Jamie Oliver's Rolling Pin

Rolling pins are the earliest known kitchen baking utensils and are a concept that go back to the 17th century. This particular rolling pin was used by British celebrity chef and restaurateur, James Trevor Oliver, who is most known for his typically English cuisine. This rolling pin was used at Oliver’s first job as a pastry chef at Antonio Carluccio’s Neal Street restaurant where he first gained experience with preparing Italian cuisine – rolling dough in order to make his pasta dishes, along with his mentor Gennaro Contaldo.

Tong Evolution

Tongs are a simple tool used around the world in various jobs. It is used to handle dangerous material with safety as it does not involve contact with the hands. There is evidence of Egyptians using metal rods and tong like tools in around 1450BC to hold objects over fire as they are known to be a replacement handler for potentially dangerous items. Tongs were originally wood sticks that become metal sticks around 3000BC. This particular tong shows the evolution from wooden to metal material and demonstrates the utensil that is used in most kitchen households today.

Desert Lover Ice Cream Scooper

This ice cream scoop was introduced during the Depression and helped ice-cream parlour owners in the US scoop out the same amount of ice-cream every time, so they did not give away any extra product. They are now used as a specialised spoon used to serve ice cream as it transfers an unspecific amount to a bowl for instance. The ice cream scooper has become a large part of the food service industry and in the retail and wholesale food utensil industries and popular amongst dessert lovers.

Metallic Knife

The first edged tools have been recorded to be more than 2.6 million years old, which precedes Homo Sapiens. These knife like tools used sharp edges to process food. When humans entered the world, an explosion of refined edge tools and the design of better stone knives began. This particular example is a representation of our super “high tech knives” that we use in the kitchen – One that took only approximately 2.6 million years to become what it is today. Now it’s intended use is for food preparation and at the dining table.

Wing Corkscrew

A corkscrew is a tool for drawing corks from wine bottles, beer bottles and other household bottles. In traditional form, the corkscrew consists of a pointed metallic helix attached to a handle which the user screws into the cork and pulls to extract it. First invented in 1939, a wing corkscrew such as this one, sometimes called a butterfly corkscrew or angel corkscrew, has two levers, one on either side of the worm. Corkscrews of this design are particularly popular in household use.

Where Can This Collection Be Found?

This collection can be found at the Anna Daly National Museum of Kitchen History at its newest exhibition on the evolution of utensils. This Kitchen History museum is significant in encouraging those to care about the process of food making and cooking as well as allowing people to expand their ideas on the way utensils may be used or have been used in the past.