Chef Hector

On Face book today, Fazoli's asks,

Why does eating spaghetti have to be so tricky? How is a kid supposed to learn how to use a fork and spoon at the same time, while twirling extra long noodles? It can be complicated and we want to see it in action – upload your child’s Getti Your Spaghetti video at ....

Actually the kid should not be using a spoon. He should be using only a fork. How do I know?
I learned from no less an authority than Chef Hector.
When I was a lad in Cleveland, back in the late 1940s, my mom and dad and I would go to Chef Hector's Restaurant in downtown Cleveland. I remember it well. At Euclid and E 9th., you walked south half a block and then turn down this alley. Near the end of the alley, were steps covered with a round-topped canvas awning leading down to the restaurant. The front flap of the awning was lettered CHEF HECTOR's. It was like a setting in a gangster movie. Hell, we lived in a gangster movie.
I don't think that I had even started school yet when we were there one night and I was having my usual spaghetti with butter. That little concoction has gone by the wayside by now. But I digress. I was slopping my sketti all over the place when Chef Hector walked by.
He said "You don' know how to eat the spaghetti young man? I show you how." He put the spoon down and said, "You only usea the fork, no spoon." Then he said, "If you slop a bit around, who cares? That's why you tuck the napkin into the front of your shirt".
And then he left.
My dad chuckled a bit and then asked me if I know who had just showed me how to eat spaghetti properly. I said Chef Hector. He then told me that Hector's last name is Boaiardi.