<h2>Where hospitality cutlery actually comes from</h2>
<p>Walk into any restaurant in New Zealand and pick up a fork. There's a good chance it was made in the same part of the world as the fork at the restaurant down the road, regardless of what brand is stamped on the back.</p>
<p>For decades, hospitality cutlery has been manufactured in a relatively small number of countries — historically Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Taiwan, and increasingly China, which now dominates the supply base. The factories are large, well-established, and produce cutlery for dozens of brands sold around the world. The same pattern shape is often sold under different names in different markets, and the differences are in the spec each importer asks for.</p>
<p>To the average person — and frankly, to most experienced buyers — there's no immediately obvious or material difference between brand X and brand Y. There may be subtle differences in material grade, finish quality, or slight size variations, but essentially they're remarkably similar. Let's face it: it's a piece of stainless steel made to a shape.</p>
<p>That underlying similarity is the reason you'll see grouped names throughout our site — <em>Bogart / Hudson</em>, <em>Elite / Royal / Cobra</em>, <em>Melrose / Garden / Isabelle</em>. We've grouped these together because they're close enough that we stock them as practical equivalents. <em>Bogart</em> is a long-running pattern from earlier years; <em>Hudson</em> is the closer-to-current replacement. Place a <em>Hudson</em> alongside a <em>Bogart</em> on the same table and you'd be hard pressed to spot a difference — and your guests almost certainly won't. There may be tiny variations in the curve of the handle or the depth of the bowl, but practically speaking they're the same pattern. It's a useful thing in a category where pieces get lost over time.</p>
<p>That isn't a scandal. It's just how the global cutlery industry works, and it's been that way for as long as we've been in the business — which, at Spunglo, is over fifty years.</p>
<p>What it means for you as a buyer is this: brand badges matter less than you think, and the spec underneath matters more than you think. Once you understand the spec, you can buy with confidence at any price point.</p>
<h2>A quick note on our own history</h2>
<p>Spunglo has been importing and distributing cutlery to the New Zealand hospitality trade for over fifty years. Over that time we've worked under several different brand and licensing arrangements, ordering direct from the factories that produce the cutlery and managing the spec to match what the New Zealand market wants. The brand on the back has changed once or twice. The factories, the patterns, and the spec discipline have been consistent throughout.</p>
<p>Today our cutlery comes through our partnership with Ken Hands Agencies in Australia and our own Spunglo and YesChef! house brands. The patterns are the same ones New Zealand kitchens have used for decades — there are six basic pattern families that dominate the local market, and most brands offer their own version of each one. They're close enough that swapping a lost fork from one to another is rarely a hunt.</p>
<p>One quiet consequence of fifty years in the trade: open almost any cutlery drawer in New Zealand — at home, in a café, at a restaurant — and there's a good chance some of what's in there came through Spunglo at some point. We've been the bit you don't see for a long time. ChefSmart is just the front door we've put on it.</p>
<h2>Flatware versus higher grades — what the words actually mean</h2>
<p>The first thing worth clearing up: <strong>"flatware" and "cutlery" are not separate quality grades</strong>. In the United States <em>flatware</em> simply means cutlery — they're the same thing. In the UK and Australasia, <em>flatware</em> sometimes refers specifically to the flat pieces (knives, forks, serving spoons) as distinct from <em>hollowware</em> (the pieces with a bowl, like spoons and ladles). It's a vocabulary distinction, not a quality one.</p>
<p>What actually determines quality is what's underneath — the steel, the manufacturing process, and the finishing. That's where price tiers come from.</p>
<h2>The three things that decide cutlery quality</h2>
<h3>1. The grade of stainless steel</h3>
<p>The numbers you see on cutlery — 18/0, 18/8, 18/10 — refer to the percentage of chromium and nickel in the steel. The same grades go by different names in different industries, which can be confusing if you're cross-referencing a spec sheet. Here's the full picture in one table.</p>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Trade name</th>
<th>AISI grade</th>
<th>EN steel number</th>
<th>Composition (Cr / Ni)</th>
<th>Family</th>
<th>Where you'll see it</th>
<th>Notes</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>18/10</strong></td>
<td>304</td>
<td>1.4301</td>
<td>18% / 10%</td>
<td>Austenitic (non-hardenable)</td>
<td>Premium spoons, forks, serving pieces. Fine dining, banquet, five-star.</td>
<td>Highest grade in common cutlery use. Marginally shinier and more corrosion-resistant than 18/8. Always stamped — the manufacturer wants you to know.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>18/8</strong></td>
<td>304 (lower-spec)</td>
<td>1.4301</td>
<td>18% / 8%</td>
<td>Austenitic (non-hardenable)</td>
<td>Standard spoons, forks, serving pieces. Cafés, casual dining, pubs, most everyday hospitality.</td>
<td>The workhorse. Very difficult to tell apart from 18/10 in service. For most operations, more than enough.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>18/0</strong></td>
<td>430</td>
<td>1.4016</td>
<td>18% / 0%</td>
<td>Ferritic (non-hardenable, magnetic)</td>
<td>Budget spoons and forks. Cheap takeaway,
