Ken Albala is a food historian at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. He has published 29 books including academic monographs, single subject food histories, encyclopedias, cookbooks, translations and upcoming, an atlas. He began carving spoons a few years ago for no explicable reason. 

The clunky fork in front is carved from an oak whisky barrel stave from the Sabbatical Distillery in the S Joaquin Delta. The other pieces are all carved from local wood sourced in Stockton (USA) using only a handsaw, axe and carving knives.