CRASSH Embodies Things, Histories of Cognition, Practices and Theories. Food, 2017
For the past twenty five years the historic Kitchens at Hampton Court Palace have seen the recons... more For the past twenty five years the historic Kitchens at Hampton Court Palace have seen the reconstruction of hundreds of historic recipes with the aim of using them and their associated material culture, as a tool to better engage with visitors and a lens through which we can view and understand the past. One should be clear that the intention over this quarter of a century of public presentation has never been to present these recreated recipes as being examples of what food tasted like, or indeed looked like in the past, but rather as the end products in the investigation of the processes that would have been gone through by the cooks of Henry VIII’s Court and their counterparts through history. Taste is subjective, difficult to articulate in writing and lacking in surviving evidence, as such it was decided early on in the project that the end result, no matter how tasty it could be, was of less importance than the journey to get there. Improvements and alterations to ingredients through the centuries from crossbreeding to the absorption of chemicals and nutrients into the food chain that were never present in the past, mean that attempting to create an ‘authentic taste of the past’ is all but impossible, no matter what equipment or spaces are available. We should however not be down hearted about this as the journey; the tools, the things, and the methodology, are actually far more interesting than the rather transitory finished dishes themselves.
Kitchens in Britain and Europe 1500-1950, Wednesday 18th January 2017, Senate House, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2017
In 1991, the kitchens of Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace were re-presented to the public with ... more In 1991, the kitchens of Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace were re-presented to the public with the view to showing them at the height of their function in June 1542, as if the cooks had just walked out of the room as the visitor walked in. No longer mere empty spaces, or simple displays of kitchenalia from history, this new arrangement was described as ‘quite the most stunning exhibition of its kind in the world’; yet for all of the historic objects and reproduction food it contained, this new display still took the hustle and bustle of a once spectacular series of cooking spaces and converted them into a static site for visitors to walk through. It may well have been the most stunning exhibition of its kind, but its kind were staid displays of the material culture of kitchens owned by the respective historic sites; the layout and arrangement of which owed more to the designer’s pen than the habit of hand of the former occupants. Since 1991, the kitchens at Hampton Court have been re-presented once again, and are used for regular live historic cookery demonstrations. No longer simply the empty shell of a building, these spaces form a core component of the visitor offer to Hampton Court, and their interpretation, which has evolved from static display of objects, to include recipe driven demonstrations of sense history, to a more hands on, “history where it happened” approach, has striven to give visitors a taste of the frenetic activity that they were designed for. This paper will present some of the history behind the modern use of the visitor attraction that are Henry VIII’s kitchens at Hampton Court Palace and look at the research that has informed the interpretation of this set of historic cookery spaces.
Fifth International Convention on Food History and Food Studies, IEHCA 2019, 2019
In 1991, the kitchens of Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace were re-presented to the public to sh... more In 1991, the kitchens of Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace were re-presented to the public to show them at the height of their function in 1542; as if the cooks had just left as visitors walked in. No longer empty spaces, or displays of kitchen tools from history, this interpretation was described as ‘quite the most stunning exhibition of its kind in the world’; yet for all the historic objects and reproduction food it contained, this display still offered a static presentation, devoid of live action. It may have been the most stunning exhibition of its kind, but its kind were staid displays of the material culture of kitchens; the layout and arrangement of which owed more to the designer’s pen than the lives of former occupants. In 2006, these kitchens were re-presented once again, and used for regular live historic cookery demonstrations. The kitchens now formed a core component of the visitor offer to Hampton Court, and their interpretation had evolved to include recipe driven demonstrations of sense history, with a hands-on, “history where it happened” approach at its core. In 2018 the kitchens have been represented once again with live cookery as a core concept and with the aim of delivering the most authentic version of the kitchens of Henry VIII's Court. But how authentic is authentic, and what makes it different to the 1991 approach?
This paper will discuss the interpretation of Henry VIII’s Kitchens and ask how authentic an experience is it possible to present to visitors to this historic building.
The Assize of Bread has proved to be a rich source of information for the study of this most sta... more The Assize of Bread has proved to be a rich source of information for the study of this most staple of foodstuffs. The assize has been written about at great length by many authors, but most works concentrate on the socio-economic impact of the legislation rather than the bread itself. Do we actually know how a medieval loaf of bread was made? I suggest that it is by investigating and experimenting with the method of manufacturing of bread rather than concentrating on the Assize details which will lead us to a much closer understanding of the bread our forebears consumed
Food and Communication: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2015, Jul 2016
For over 20 years, the Tudor kitchens of Historic Royal Palaces Hampton Court Palace have planned... more For over 20 years, the Tudor kitchens of Historic Royal Palaces Hampton Court Palace have planned, cooked and presented a plethora of historical dishes for visitors to view but not consume. A veritable feast for all of the senses bar taste, historic recipes, ingredients and techniques have been used as a lens through which to view the past and as tools with which we can better interact with our visitors and to enable us to better tell the stories of how monarchs and people have shaped society in some of the greatest palaces ever built.
In this paper I shall look at how the cookery interpretation at Hampton Court Palace has grown and changed through the years to better accommodate our changing visitor demographic. From its start in 1991 as a one off public relations and marketing "splash" intended to publicize the newly refurbished kitchens of King Henry VIII to the present day where the cookery forms part of the core offering of interpreting history where it happened for visitors, the one constant has been the use of food as a way of interacting with visitors.
Set up under the auspices of food historian Peter Brears, the first interpretation took advantage of an audience for whom the presentation of live cookery, let alone historic cookery, was a rare and exciting proposition. The public view of historic food owed more to TV and film than it did to actual history and the idea that recipes, ingredients or techniques from the past could have a place in the modern kitchen was seen as laughable. As time has moved on the audience for such presentations has evolved; cookery and food have become fashionable and popular and famous chefs have grasped the ideas and ingredients contained within historic recipes with both hands and brought them to a modern audience. Access to better cookery information from TV shows and books has flourished and the live presentation of historic recipes has had to evolve and change to meet the challenges of using food as an explanatory tool for this well informed and inquisitive audience segment. Visitors now come with a level of knowledge about food that was not present two decades ago and, although ostensibly a presentation of historical information, the cooks and events have to take this into account. When the interpretation began the format was to prepare a meal in front of the visitors using period recipes and techniques, answering any questions that arose; the meal was then presented and consumed by the interpretation staff in front of visitors as a display of dining and etiquette from the period. This format worked well to begin with, though was not without some problems such as visitors who only saw the meal portion of the day being convinced that all that happened through the day was a group of people sitting and eating. Whilst interesting and informative for a while, it soon became clear that visitors to historic sites had begun to change. They were becoming more knowledgeable on the subject, more interested in deeper interaction, more questioning and more desiring of an immersive and participatory experience beyond the didactic approach of the early cookery interpretation. The question was how to change the presentation style, keeping food as the central element and without discarding the key interpretative techniques that had been developed over the years. This paper aims to illustrate the work that has been done to keep the interpretation of food at Hampton Court Palace at the forefront of our interaction with the public.
For over 20 years now Historic Royal Palaces have been at the forefront of historic food reconstr... more For over 20 years now Historic Royal Palaces have been at the forefront of historic food reconstruction with their historic cookery events at Hampton Court Palace. As with many similar projects and re-enactments across the country, recipes from the past are reconstructed in front of the public, to learn about historical cooking techniques, ingredients and processes as well as to gain a better understanding of how food shaped the lives of people and places in the past.
What happens though when a written recipe doesn’t exist? In the world of historic food reconstruction, the written recipe is king; followed, investigated and used as the primary, and too often the only evidence from which to work. We have no surviving English recipe for bread that dates to the medieval period, the closest comes from the mid sixteenth century, yet we know that bread was baked, sold and consumed; what was it like and would having an actual recipe help or hinder us to understand it more?
I propose that the experimental process is the best way to gain a better understanding of what bread was like for our medieval forebears and how it compared to the bread that we eat today?
This paper documents some of the initial work into this subject, looking at the principals and methodology required to produce a loaf of bread that would be as recognisable to a medieval Londoner as a loaf of sliced white is to a modern one.
The subject of bread in medieval England has been written about extensively. Works on the bakers ... more The subject of bread in medieval England has been written about extensively. Works on the bakers Company and assorted economic histories focusing on the assize of bread have led to a greater understanding of the legislation behind bread production in the Middle Ages but give us little information about the bread itself. Food histories on the other hand, have been too reliant on later period recipes and associated linguistic descriptions with an assumption that these must apply to breads from earlier times. What do we know about medieval bread? Could we accurately reconstruct medieval breads? What other information and references from the period would allow a better reconstruction of the breads at that time and is a physical reconstruction a truly viable option?
Historic cookery demonstrations at heritage sites appear to be a popular way of engaging with the... more Historic cookery demonstrations at heritage sites appear to be a popular way of engaging with the visiting public, purporting to be entertaining, educational and occasionally, experimental. Having an event that engages with the visitor is great for an historic site as happy visitors are often turned into repeat visitors, but can historic cookery displays truly hope to be more than just entertaining? Is there room for education as well as entertainment and can there ever truly be an experimental component within an event that displays to the public? This paper will use the historic cookery project at Hampton Court Palace as a case study to discuss these points, looking at the pros and cons of cookery interpretation with a live audience for both the historic site and the visiting public.
Rarely does a subject strike a chord with the general public in the way that the study of food hi... more Rarely does a subject strike a chord with the general public in the way that the study of food history has. This extremely popular topic has the advantage of including themes and subjects as common to us today as they were to people in the past; food, kitchens, cookery and recipes all resonate through the ages and now more people are looking to the past in order to guide them in their food consumption today. Yet it would also be true to say that few subjects have as many persistently held myths attached to them as food history seems to, whether it is the assumption that our forebears used spices to cover the taste of rotting meat or that Henry VIII’s meals were a veritable food fight, people are happy that they know the ‘facts’ and are often shocked to find out the actual truth of our culinary history. Popular culture, such as poorly researched television programmes and movies, repeat these myths over and over, but just as frequently we find the accepted works on the subject adding their own myths to the popular mix; meat was the preserve of the wealthy whilst vegetables were the foodstuff of the poor and that surviving recipes are representative of the foods served on a regular basis to the higher levels of society, but are they actually true? They are often presented with little or no corroborating evidence and given the current vogue for the presentation of live historic cookery demonstrations across the country, these facts are being passed on to thousands of people all of whom are keen to see if they can learn something about the food that they eat by looking at food from the past. At a time when the consumption of meat is considered in some circles to be unfashionable, this paper aims to present a balanced view of meat on the historical table. Throughout, I shall concentrate on evidence from the late medieval and early post medieval periods as these are the periods most associated both with the origins of ‘English’ food and many of these food myths.
In the middle of 2014 an image was posted to Twitter by Sjoerd Levelt (@SLevelt) of damage by fir... more In the middle of 2014 an image was posted to Twitter by Sjoerd Levelt (@SLevelt) of damage by fire to a book within the Bodleian Library collection. There was a short discussion online as to the nature of the damage and speculation as to cause followed by the suggestion of experimental burning to attempt to recreate the damage as a means of exploring how the original could have happened. Some moths later and we have
finally made time to do some small investigative work to look at this.
CRASSH Embodies Things, Histories of Cognition, Practices and Theories. Food, 2017
For the past twenty five years the historic Kitchens at Hampton Court Palace have seen the recons... more For the past twenty five years the historic Kitchens at Hampton Court Palace have seen the reconstruction of hundreds of historic recipes with the aim of using them and their associated material culture, as a tool to better engage with visitors and a lens through which we can view and understand the past. One should be clear that the intention over this quarter of a century of public presentation has never been to present these recreated recipes as being examples of what food tasted like, or indeed looked like in the past, but rather as the end products in the investigation of the processes that would have been gone through by the cooks of Henry VIII’s Court and their counterparts through history. Taste is subjective, difficult to articulate in writing and lacking in surviving evidence, as such it was decided early on in the project that the end result, no matter how tasty it could be, was of less importance than the journey to get there. Improvements and alterations to ingredients through the centuries from crossbreeding to the absorption of chemicals and nutrients into the food chain that were never present in the past, mean that attempting to create an ‘authentic taste of the past’ is all but impossible, no matter what equipment or spaces are available. We should however not be down hearted about this as the journey; the tools, the things, and the methodology, are actually far more interesting than the rather transitory finished dishes themselves.
Kitchens in Britain and Europe 1500-1950, Wednesday 18th January 2017, Senate House, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2017
In 1991, the kitchens of Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace were re-presented to the public with ... more In 1991, the kitchens of Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace were re-presented to the public with the view to showing them at the height of their function in June 1542, as if the cooks had just walked out of the room as the visitor walked in. No longer mere empty spaces, or simple displays of kitchenalia from history, this new arrangement was described as ‘quite the most stunning exhibition of its kind in the world’; yet for all of the historic objects and reproduction food it contained, this new display still took the hustle and bustle of a once spectacular series of cooking spaces and converted them into a static site for visitors to walk through. It may well have been the most stunning exhibition of its kind, but its kind were staid displays of the material culture of kitchens owned by the respective historic sites; the layout and arrangement of which owed more to the designer’s pen than the habit of hand of the former occupants. Since 1991, the kitchens at Hampton Court have been re-presented once again, and are used for regular live historic cookery demonstrations. No longer simply the empty shell of a building, these spaces form a core component of the visitor offer to Hampton Court, and their interpretation, which has evolved from static display of objects, to include recipe driven demonstrations of sense history, to a more hands on, “history where it happened” approach, has striven to give visitors a taste of the frenetic activity that they were designed for. This paper will present some of the history behind the modern use of the visitor attraction that are Henry VIII’s kitchens at Hampton Court Palace and look at the research that has informed the interpretation of this set of historic cookery spaces.
Fifth International Convention on Food History and Food Studies, IEHCA 2019, 2019
In 1991, the kitchens of Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace were re-presented to the public to sh... more In 1991, the kitchens of Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace were re-presented to the public to show them at the height of their function in 1542; as if the cooks had just left as visitors walked in. No longer empty spaces, or displays of kitchen tools from history, this interpretation was described as ‘quite the most stunning exhibition of its kind in the world’; yet for all the historic objects and reproduction food it contained, this display still offered a static presentation, devoid of live action. It may have been the most stunning exhibition of its kind, but its kind were staid displays of the material culture of kitchens; the layout and arrangement of which owed more to the designer’s pen than the lives of former occupants. In 2006, these kitchens were re-presented once again, and used for regular live historic cookery demonstrations. The kitchens now formed a core component of the visitor offer to Hampton Court, and their interpretation had evolved to include recipe driven demonstrations of sense history, with a hands-on, “history where it happened” approach at its core. In 2018 the kitchens have been represented once again with live cookery as a core concept and with the aim of delivering the most authentic version of the kitchens of Henry VIII's Court. But how authentic is authentic, and what makes it different to the 1991 approach?
This paper will discuss the interpretation of Henry VIII’s Kitchens and ask how authentic an experience is it possible to present to visitors to this historic building.
The Assize of Bread has proved to be a rich source of information for the study of this most sta... more The Assize of Bread has proved to be a rich source of information for the study of this most staple of foodstuffs. The assize has been written about at great length by many authors, but most works concentrate on the socio-economic impact of the legislation rather than the bread itself. Do we actually know how a medieval loaf of bread was made? I suggest that it is by investigating and experimenting with the method of manufacturing of bread rather than concentrating on the Assize details which will lead us to a much closer understanding of the bread our forebears consumed
Food and Communication: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2015, Jul 2016
For over 20 years, the Tudor kitchens of Historic Royal Palaces Hampton Court Palace have planned... more For over 20 years, the Tudor kitchens of Historic Royal Palaces Hampton Court Palace have planned, cooked and presented a plethora of historical dishes for visitors to view but not consume. A veritable feast for all of the senses bar taste, historic recipes, ingredients and techniques have been used as a lens through which to view the past and as tools with which we can better interact with our visitors and to enable us to better tell the stories of how monarchs and people have shaped society in some of the greatest palaces ever built.
In this paper I shall look at how the cookery interpretation at Hampton Court Palace has grown and changed through the years to better accommodate our changing visitor demographic. From its start in 1991 as a one off public relations and marketing "splash" intended to publicize the newly refurbished kitchens of King Henry VIII to the present day where the cookery forms part of the core offering of interpreting history where it happened for visitors, the one constant has been the use of food as a way of interacting with visitors.
Set up under the auspices of food historian Peter Brears, the first interpretation took advantage of an audience for whom the presentation of live cookery, let alone historic cookery, was a rare and exciting proposition. The public view of historic food owed more to TV and film than it did to actual history and the idea that recipes, ingredients or techniques from the past could have a place in the modern kitchen was seen as laughable. As time has moved on the audience for such presentations has evolved; cookery and food have become fashionable and popular and famous chefs have grasped the ideas and ingredients contained within historic recipes with both hands and brought them to a modern audience. Access to better cookery information from TV shows and books has flourished and the live presentation of historic recipes has had to evolve and change to meet the challenges of using food as an explanatory tool for this well informed and inquisitive audience segment. Visitors now come with a level of knowledge about food that was not present two decades ago and, although ostensibly a presentation of historical information, the cooks and events have to take this into account. When the interpretation began the format was to prepare a meal in front of the visitors using period recipes and techniques, answering any questions that arose; the meal was then presented and consumed by the interpretation staff in front of visitors as a display of dining and etiquette from the period. This format worked well to begin with, though was not without some problems such as visitors who only saw the meal portion of the day being convinced that all that happened through the day was a group of people sitting and eating. Whilst interesting and informative for a while, it soon became clear that visitors to historic sites had begun to change. They were becoming more knowledgeable on the subject, more interested in deeper interaction, more questioning and more desiring of an immersive and participatory experience beyond the didactic approach of the early cookery interpretation. The question was how to change the presentation style, keeping food as the central element and without discarding the key interpretative techniques that had been developed over the years. This paper aims to illustrate the work that has been done to keep the interpretation of food at Hampton Court Palace at the forefront of our interaction with the public.
For over 20 years now Historic Royal Palaces have been at the forefront of historic food reconstr... more For over 20 years now Historic Royal Palaces have been at the forefront of historic food reconstruction with their historic cookery events at Hampton Court Palace. As with many similar projects and re-enactments across the country, recipes from the past are reconstructed in front of the public, to learn about historical cooking techniques, ingredients and processes as well as to gain a better understanding of how food shaped the lives of people and places in the past.
What happens though when a written recipe doesn’t exist? In the world of historic food reconstruction, the written recipe is king; followed, investigated and used as the primary, and too often the only evidence from which to work. We have no surviving English recipe for bread that dates to the medieval period, the closest comes from the mid sixteenth century, yet we know that bread was baked, sold and consumed; what was it like and would having an actual recipe help or hinder us to understand it more?
I propose that the experimental process is the best way to gain a better understanding of what bread was like for our medieval forebears and how it compared to the bread that we eat today?
This paper documents some of the initial work into this subject, looking at the principals and methodology required to produce a loaf of bread that would be as recognisable to a medieval Londoner as a loaf of sliced white is to a modern one.
The subject of bread in medieval England has been written about extensively. Works on the bakers ... more The subject of bread in medieval England has been written about extensively. Works on the bakers Company and assorted economic histories focusing on the assize of bread have led to a greater understanding of the legislation behind bread production in the Middle Ages but give us little information about the bread itself. Food histories on the other hand, have been too reliant on later period recipes and associated linguistic descriptions with an assumption that these must apply to breads from earlier times. What do we know about medieval bread? Could we accurately reconstruct medieval breads? What other information and references from the period would allow a better reconstruction of the breads at that time and is a physical reconstruction a truly viable option?
Historic cookery demonstrations at heritage sites appear to be a popular way of engaging with the... more Historic cookery demonstrations at heritage sites appear to be a popular way of engaging with the visiting public, purporting to be entertaining, educational and occasionally, experimental. Having an event that engages with the visitor is great for an historic site as happy visitors are often turned into repeat visitors, but can historic cookery displays truly hope to be more than just entertaining? Is there room for education as well as entertainment and can there ever truly be an experimental component within an event that displays to the public? This paper will use the historic cookery project at Hampton Court Palace as a case study to discuss these points, looking at the pros and cons of cookery interpretation with a live audience for both the historic site and the visiting public.
Rarely does a subject strike a chord with the general public in the way that the study of food hi... more Rarely does a subject strike a chord with the general public in the way that the study of food history has. This extremely popular topic has the advantage of including themes and subjects as common to us today as they were to people in the past; food, kitchens, cookery and recipes all resonate through the ages and now more people are looking to the past in order to guide them in their food consumption today. Yet it would also be true to say that few subjects have as many persistently held myths attached to them as food history seems to, whether it is the assumption that our forebears used spices to cover the taste of rotting meat or that Henry VIII’s meals were a veritable food fight, people are happy that they know the ‘facts’ and are often shocked to find out the actual truth of our culinary history. Popular culture, such as poorly researched television programmes and movies, repeat these myths over and over, but just as frequently we find the accepted works on the subject adding their own myths to the popular mix; meat was the preserve of the wealthy whilst vegetables were the foodstuff of the poor and that surviving recipes are representative of the foods served on a regular basis to the higher levels of society, but are they actually true? They are often presented with little or no corroborating evidence and given the current vogue for the presentation of live historic cookery demonstrations across the country, these facts are being passed on to thousands of people all of whom are keen to see if they can learn something about the food that they eat by looking at food from the past. At a time when the consumption of meat is considered in some circles to be unfashionable, this paper aims to present a balanced view of meat on the historical table. Throughout, I shall concentrate on evidence from the late medieval and early post medieval periods as these are the periods most associated both with the origins of ‘English’ food and many of these food myths.
In the middle of 2014 an image was posted to Twitter by Sjoerd Levelt (@SLevelt) of damage by fir... more In the middle of 2014 an image was posted to Twitter by Sjoerd Levelt (@SLevelt) of damage by fire to a book within the Bodleian Library collection. There was a short discussion online as to the nature of the damage and speculation as to cause followed by the suggestion of experimental burning to attempt to recreate the damage as a means of exploring how the original could have happened. Some moths later and we have
finally made time to do some small investigative work to look at this.
Uploads
So, how to go about cooking historic recipes?
Since 1991, the kitchens at Hampton Court have been re-presented once again, and are used for regular live historic cookery demonstrations. No longer simply the empty shell of a building, these spaces form a core component of the visitor offer to Hampton Court, and their interpretation, which has evolved from static display of objects, to include recipe driven demonstrations of sense history, to a more hands on, “history where it happened” approach, has striven to give visitors a taste of the frenetic activity that they were designed for.
This paper will present some of the history behind the modern use of the visitor attraction that are Henry VIII’s kitchens at Hampton Court Palace and look at the research that has informed the interpretation of this set of historic cookery spaces.
In 2006, these kitchens were re-presented once again, and used for regular live historic cookery demonstrations. The kitchens now formed a core component of the visitor offer to Hampton Court, and their interpretation had evolved to include recipe driven demonstrations of sense history, with a hands-on, “history where it happened” approach at its core.
In 2018 the kitchens have been represented once again with live cookery as a core concept and with the aim of delivering the most authentic version of the kitchens of Henry VIII's Court. But how authentic is authentic, and what makes it different to the 1991 approach?
This paper will discuss the interpretation of Henry VIII’s Kitchens and ask how authentic an experience is it possible to present to visitors to this historic building.
I suggest that it is by investigating and experimenting with the method of manufacturing of bread rather than concentrating on the Assize details which will lead us to a much closer understanding of the bread our forebears consumed
In this paper I shall look at how the cookery interpretation at Hampton Court Palace has grown and changed through the years to better accommodate our changing visitor demographic. From its start in 1991 as a one off public relations and marketing "splash" intended to publicize the newly refurbished kitchens of King Henry VIII to the present day where the cookery forms part of the core offering of interpreting history where it happened for visitors, the one constant has been the use of food as a way of interacting with visitors.
Set up under the auspices of food historian Peter Brears, the first interpretation took advantage of an audience for whom the presentation of live cookery, let alone historic cookery, was a rare and exciting proposition. The public view of historic food owed more to TV and film than it did to actual history and the idea that recipes, ingredients or techniques from the past could have a place in the modern kitchen was seen as laughable. As time has moved on the audience for such presentations has evolved; cookery and food have become fashionable and popular and famous chefs have grasped the ideas and ingredients contained within historic recipes with both hands and brought them to a modern audience. Access to better cookery information from TV shows and books has flourished and the live presentation of historic recipes has had to evolve and change to meet the challenges of using food as an explanatory tool for this well informed and inquisitive audience segment. Visitors now come with a level of knowledge about food that was not present two decades ago and, although ostensibly a presentation of historical information, the cooks and events have to take this into account. When the interpretation began the format was to prepare a meal in front of the visitors using period recipes and techniques, answering any questions that arose; the meal was then presented and consumed by the interpretation staff in front of visitors as a display of dining and etiquette from the period. This format worked well to begin with, though was not without some problems such as visitors who only saw the meal portion of the day being convinced that all that happened through the day was a group of people sitting and eating. Whilst interesting and informative for a while, it soon became clear that visitors to historic sites had begun to change. They were becoming more knowledgeable on the subject, more interested in deeper interaction, more questioning and more desiring of an immersive and participatory experience beyond the didactic approach of the early cookery interpretation. The question was how to change the presentation style, keeping food as the central element and without discarding the key interpretative techniques that had been developed over the years. This paper aims to illustrate the work that has been done to keep the interpretation of food at Hampton Court Palace at the forefront of our interaction with the public.
What happens though when a written recipe doesn’t exist? In the world of historic food reconstruction, the written recipe is king; followed, investigated and used as the primary, and too often the only evidence from which to work. We have no surviving English recipe for bread that dates to the medieval period, the closest comes from the mid sixteenth century, yet we know that bread was baked, sold and consumed; what was it like and would having an actual recipe help or hinder us to understand it more?
I propose that the experimental process is the best way to gain a better understanding of what bread was like for our medieval forebears and how it compared to the bread that we eat today?
This paper documents some of the initial work into this subject, looking at the principals and methodology required to produce a loaf of bread that would be as recognisable to a medieval Londoner as a loaf of sliced white is to a modern one.
finally made time to do some small investigative work to look at this.
So, how to go about cooking historic recipes?
Since 1991, the kitchens at Hampton Court have been re-presented once again, and are used for regular live historic cookery demonstrations. No longer simply the empty shell of a building, these spaces form a core component of the visitor offer to Hampton Court, and their interpretation, which has evolved from static display of objects, to include recipe driven demonstrations of sense history, to a more hands on, “history where it happened” approach, has striven to give visitors a taste of the frenetic activity that they were designed for.
This paper will present some of the history behind the modern use of the visitor attraction that are Henry VIII’s kitchens at Hampton Court Palace and look at the research that has informed the interpretation of this set of historic cookery spaces.
In 2006, these kitchens were re-presented once again, and used for regular live historic cookery demonstrations. The kitchens now formed a core component of the visitor offer to Hampton Court, and their interpretation had evolved to include recipe driven demonstrations of sense history, with a hands-on, “history where it happened” approach at its core.
In 2018 the kitchens have been represented once again with live cookery as a core concept and with the aim of delivering the most authentic version of the kitchens of Henry VIII's Court. But how authentic is authentic, and what makes it different to the 1991 approach?
This paper will discuss the interpretation of Henry VIII’s Kitchens and ask how authentic an experience is it possible to present to visitors to this historic building.
I suggest that it is by investigating and experimenting with the method of manufacturing of bread rather than concentrating on the Assize details which will lead us to a much closer understanding of the bread our forebears consumed
In this paper I shall look at how the cookery interpretation at Hampton Court Palace has grown and changed through the years to better accommodate our changing visitor demographic. From its start in 1991 as a one off public relations and marketing "splash" intended to publicize the newly refurbished kitchens of King Henry VIII to the present day where the cookery forms part of the core offering of interpreting history where it happened for visitors, the one constant has been the use of food as a way of interacting with visitors.
Set up under the auspices of food historian Peter Brears, the first interpretation took advantage of an audience for whom the presentation of live cookery, let alone historic cookery, was a rare and exciting proposition. The public view of historic food owed more to TV and film than it did to actual history and the idea that recipes, ingredients or techniques from the past could have a place in the modern kitchen was seen as laughable. As time has moved on the audience for such presentations has evolved; cookery and food have become fashionable and popular and famous chefs have grasped the ideas and ingredients contained within historic recipes with both hands and brought them to a modern audience. Access to better cookery information from TV shows and books has flourished and the live presentation of historic recipes has had to evolve and change to meet the challenges of using food as an explanatory tool for this well informed and inquisitive audience segment. Visitors now come with a level of knowledge about food that was not present two decades ago and, although ostensibly a presentation of historical information, the cooks and events have to take this into account. When the interpretation began the format was to prepare a meal in front of the visitors using period recipes and techniques, answering any questions that arose; the meal was then presented and consumed by the interpretation staff in front of visitors as a display of dining and etiquette from the period. This format worked well to begin with, though was not without some problems such as visitors who only saw the meal portion of the day being convinced that all that happened through the day was a group of people sitting and eating. Whilst interesting and informative for a while, it soon became clear that visitors to historic sites had begun to change. They were becoming more knowledgeable on the subject, more interested in deeper interaction, more questioning and more desiring of an immersive and participatory experience beyond the didactic approach of the early cookery interpretation. The question was how to change the presentation style, keeping food as the central element and without discarding the key interpretative techniques that had been developed over the years. This paper aims to illustrate the work that has been done to keep the interpretation of food at Hampton Court Palace at the forefront of our interaction with the public.
What happens though when a written recipe doesn’t exist? In the world of historic food reconstruction, the written recipe is king; followed, investigated and used as the primary, and too often the only evidence from which to work. We have no surviving English recipe for bread that dates to the medieval period, the closest comes from the mid sixteenth century, yet we know that bread was baked, sold and consumed; what was it like and would having an actual recipe help or hinder us to understand it more?
I propose that the experimental process is the best way to gain a better understanding of what bread was like for our medieval forebears and how it compared to the bread that we eat today?
This paper documents some of the initial work into this subject, looking at the principals and methodology required to produce a loaf of bread that would be as recognisable to a medieval Londoner as a loaf of sliced white is to a modern one.
finally made time to do some small investigative work to look at this.