Thursday 11 October 2007

A visit to a medieval kitchen

On the weekend I had the pleasure of visiting Hampton court and getting to meet and chat to the authors of the foodblog "Cooking the Books". The kitchen was in full swing as the people chopped, sliced, diced and baked their lunch; happily taking the time to chat to everyone about what they were doing.

My friend Steve and I chatted with one of the cooks (Robert) and discussed our respective favourite renaissance cooking resources. I didn't get a chance to talk about the crustade with Richard (a recipe that he was working on and that I had some different perspectives on).

I am so jealous that these guys get paid to do what they do... spend their days experimenting and researching renaissance recipes. What colour is green?
We also talked cooking pots and cauldrons, and Robert proved to be very knowledgeable indeed about them. Steve has a serious case of lust after these ones:

So if you see anything like them for sale in a second hand shop, snaffle me one eh?

2 comments:

Cynthia said...

Well here is another level of envy and jealousy for you. I wish with all my might that I could visit a place like that!

Anonymous said...

Well, get your act together! There's no reason you couldn't do this for a living - why don't you ask if they want to employ you - you certainly have enough knowledge and experience, and you could probably even do some of it at a distance.

As for the cooking pot, the Abbotsford mob have found a source for large brass cauldrons in South Africa where they are apparently still used as a traditional cooking vessel. Contact the Baroness of Stormhold for info.