Spaghetti Etiquette: Spoon? No Spoon?

Peasant style or not, Amy Vanderbilt gave the following logistical advice in 1952 in her “Complete Book of Etiquette:” “The spoon is placed in the left hand, assuming the subject is a right-handed person, more or less upright in the plate of spaghetti. The right hand uses the fork with the tip of the prongs against the spoon to wind the spaghetti into a manageable mouthful. It should not drip off the fork. The forkful of spaghetti is then conveyed to the mouth while the spoon remains in the hand and on the plate.”

ABIGAIL VAN BUREN:
Dear Abby...

DEAR ABBY: Shame on you for suggesting that spaghetti be eaten by twisting the forked-up spaghetti into the hollow of a large spoon. That's like condoning drinking coffee out of a saucer after fanning it with your hat! A SPAGHETTI AFICIONADO

DEAR ABBY: Where did you A get the idea that one uses a fork “and a spoon” for spaghetti? According to Emily Post it is not considered etiquette either here or in Italy. Please correct yourself in your column before millions of Dear Abby fans start eating their spaghetti like Italian peasants. VELIA

DEAR VELIA: All right, so I was taught to eat spaghetti like an Italian peasant, But it's easier to eat that way and, in my book, common sense and convenience transcend “etiquette”, so let us not have any Emily Postmortems.

DEAR READERS: I finally became so exercised over the spaghetti-eating controversy that I sent the following cable to a well- bred Italian friend in Florence, Italy: “In Italy, is it considered proper etiquette to eat spaghetti with a fork and large spoon?” -ABBITTA VAN BURENIO

By return cable, this reply was received: “Only the middle-class southern Italian eats spaghetti with a fork and large spoon. Aforementioned technique strictly excluded by good society throughout the whole of Italy.” -GIORGIO GIANESE

DEAR ABBY: I followed through on your memo, telephoned a number of the leading Italian restaurants in the Los Angeles area, and asked, “How do your customers eat spaghetti?” The replies:

“With a fork and large spoon.” - Patrone's
“With a fork and large spoon.” -La Scalla
“With a fork and large spoon.” -Villa Nova
“With a fork and large spoon.” -Gizzarri's
“With a fork and large spoon.” -Frascatis
      -Your secretary, Marion

      From “Dear Abby,” in The Desert Sun, 1963

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