Laguiole Dessert Spoons, Set of 6

Zebu horn tip, olive or wenge

Olive is a dense wood chosen for its grain, a wavy figure over a light background, and it's given a satin finish. Wenge, from equatorial Africa, is a deep brown verging on black, marked with fine streaks that look striking against white china. With zebu horn tip, the handle is cut from the horn's densest section, right at the point, and its polished shades run from honey to caramel, sometimes flamed. Pick olive for a light, warm table, wenge for strong contrast or horn tip for honey tones. Our UK guide to dessert spoons, dessert knives and forks covers the choice in more depth.

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Watch the olive wood dessert spoons

A set of six with satin olive wood handles and a wavy grain.

View this set

Where the pudding spoon fits

In a formal British setting, the dessert spoon is placed above the plate alongside the dessert fork, its handle to the right, ready for whatever pudding arrives. Laguiole en Aubrac makes it shorter than its soup spoon, in a format designed for sweet things such as tart or ice cream, and it's just as good with sticky toffee pudding or a fruit fool. It's also the spoon for a crème caramel or a chocolate mousse. Nothing stops a factory from stamping Laguiole on its cutlery, and a great many do. Each of these spoons is handmade in France by Laguiole en Aubrac.

Matching pudding cutlery

With the exception of the mixed set, each wood and horn here is also used for cake forks and dessert knives, so the whole pudding course can share one material. The soup spoons and table forks share these handles, as do the steak knives. Buy the pieces you need first and add the others later. Take wenge, for instance: you can have the same dark wood at every course, from soup and steak through to crème caramel.

Dessert spoon questions

Care advice comes with every order. Hand wash the spoons, dry each one straight after, and keep any wooden or horn handle away from the dishwasher.