Cutlery for the Future

Ever sat at the table eating, wondering who invented the spoon, fork, and knife. Possibly not, but someone did have to invent them for our everyday use. If it wasn't for the keen insight of some inventor, we might still be using our hands to eat our breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Granted, some meals such as fried chicken and hamburgers actually call for the use of our hands, but many other dishes do not. Never mind the mess factor, you would have to wait until you food completely cooled down before you could eat it.

Not exactly a great way to eat a meal. So due to someone's sheer brilliance, we have cutlery for all of our meals and eating needs. We even have disposable cutlery at our fingertips to avoid having to haul nice forks and spoons all over the place, again, someone was thinking.

What should we expect in cutlery for the future? This is a good question, whether you realize it or not, inventors are working on the concept of cutlery for the future and have come up with a few different prototypes already that were featured at the "Dining in 2015" competition or at Besteck.

One of the most interesting and useful concepts was the "Cutlery in a Wallet" design. Someone really put some thought into this one, it's cutlery you carry in your wallet. It's basic a card fashioned much like a credit card that will fit right into your wallet.

You take it out and punch out your cutlery, and put the pieces together to make your fork, spoon, and knife. Once you are finished eating you can then clean them off, reinsert them into the mold, and put back in your wallet.

Essentially you can carry it with you wherever you go; very handy.Ever go to a Chinese restaurant and have trouble using those dang chopsticks?

Just make sure you have your "fingersticks" with you to avoid that problem all together. "Fingersticks" are somewhat flexible sticks that you coil around your index finger and thumb that leaves part of a stick like portion sticking out over your finger.

You can then use these to eat Chinese food much as you do with chopsticks, but without having to figure out the coordination aspect. Again, a very handy device, but it might get you a few odd stares when at your local Chinese restaurant, they do look rather odd.

Another very neat design is the "Pop-Out Cutting Board". It’s a cutting board and a bowl in one. First you can cut up your vegetables, fruit, or whatever food you are eating, and then push down on the cutting board to form a bowl.

In an instant your freshly cut food is in a bowl. This could be very helpful around the kitchen when cooking. Instead of trying to get your food off the cutting board and into a bowl without spilling it, you can perform this task in an instant with no mess.

It should be interesting what other cutlery will be designed for future use, there are already so many great ideas being introduced every day.