This was one of those chance viewings that come up on your YouTube feed, the algorithm having decided that since you watched a couple of cooking and a couple of royal videos, you want all of them, particularly videos about royal food.
Interesting recreations by great chefs some of whom have worked for royals, of dishes made for them for Ascot, the Coronation and suchlike calendar events.
Here's the notebook of recipes they based a lot of their programs on, from Mildred D. Nicholls a cook in Buckingham Palace.
Since they're heavy on meat, I'm not likely to pursue, but it was great to see the elaboration they practiced. The public events are more about knife and fork diplomacy than actual dining, using the best homegrown and raised ingredients to impress the furriners.
Coronations give the best opportunities for show and expertise. Here's George IVs coronation dinner setup
And a more modern one
I think this is at Brighton Pavilion, his elaborate confection of a building, everything in excess.
And the space in the kitchen at some castle or other. All the copper pots!
The daughter of a famous TV cook who presented food for the home audience to make ahead of the present queen's coronation in June 1953 appeared recently to commemorate the event and the food. Avant garde melon balls! Avocadoes, too, both pretty much unknown to most home cooks at the time, very exotic.
She's seen in her house, decorated 1950s style. The furniture! The wallpaper! mainly the wallpaper, daring postwar styles.
The idea was to serve food to the neighbors who would be invited to watch the daylong ceremony on the minute tv screen. I remember watching at a neighbor's house, jammed, not many people had a set then.
Back to the future and yesterday's lunch, gnocchi with a lot of Parmesan crumbled over, chopped peppermint and chives, Irish butter. The combo of peppermint and chives is really good even without a cadre of chefs. I forgot my tiara.
I forget- do you have Netflix? If you do, you might think about watching the series "High on the Hog." It's fascinating.
ReplyDeleteNo subscriptions. If Netflix is one, that is. No TV service. Maybe readers will like it though.
Deleteomg, the awful wallpaper combined with the curtains and the upholstery and the rug in the adjacent room! how very MOD!
ReplyDeleteIt's what happens to people after six years of war and deprivation followed by five more years of austerity and rationing. They go a bit nuts.
DeleteI still consider melon balls to be exotic, LOL!
ReplyDeleteRequiring a single use tool, that's exotic.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a table setting in Downton Abbey.
ReplyDeleteMy mother said her Christmas Pudding recipe came from Balmoral castle, but as I don't have a copy of it any more, and I don't make Christmas Pudding, I can never be sure if that was true.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit behind in my blog reading and just saw this one - on the day where the news here is filled with pictures of the Queen trying her level best to wrangle a sword to cut her birthday cake.
ReplyDeleteAnd biting the head off the helpful lady who explains it works like a knife! I thought she was going to keel over from the weight of it. She kind of staggered a bit before getting the balance.
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