JUBILEE FOOD
© DRESS FOR DINNER
BYGONE BANQUETS
“Be prepared to cook a lot of food,” to recreate a historical feast, warns Emma Kay. “All food was seasonal then. If you wanted a Jubilee menu for June, you would be looking at a starter of soup, maybe vermicelli with a nod to fashionable Italian cuisine, mushrooms and veal cutlets, a pie, then fish or fowl – all followed by sweetbreads. That would be your first course. A second course would be meat-based – goose, rabbit or pigeon, with some vegetables, followed by jelly or blancmange, macaroons, a pudding, but also ham and eggs, a light omelette… and then more meat. Your second course might also contain a sweet cherry pie. Although sweet desserts would have followed the first course.” “Perhaps a seared beef carpaccio salad would be more practical than an ox roast,” suggests Sam Bilton, also recommending cherries jubilee to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee – and a later version with pancakes. “Anything incorporating red, white and blue is a good choice.” Head to her website, sambilton.com, for jubilee muffins and Crystal Palace pudding recipes. “I would not be inclined to recreate a typical street party menu from the Queen’s coronation in 1953. This was usually sandwiches with fish paste or jam, blancmange and jelly – a great treat in the 50s,” says Dr Sue Bailey. Jubilee tea cakes taken from the Victorian Mrs A.B. Marshall’s Cookery Book are a different story. “These are made from a baked, rich almond paste, glazed with tea–flavoured icing. The sides are then rolled in desiccated coconut and sprinkled with chopped pistachio nuts.”
FOOD FOR THOUGHT From classic coronation chicken (top left) to pewter plate warmers (above), there is a rich history of Jubilee dining. Today, local food trucks like this one in Willingham (right) offer hassle-free feasts Golden Jubilee as one origin of the ubiquitous ‘afternoon tea’, with a meat tea hosted by the Conservative Club, followed by a plain tea. The Victorian penchant for dainty sandwiches and cakes has carried across the centuries. Big lunches and street parties abound for the upcoming Platinum Jubilee. Writer Ameer Kotecha and former diplomat Jason Kelly, together with Fortnum & Mason, have issued a nationwide challenge to devise a completely new pudding for the Platinum Jubilee. The hope is that it will be recreated in the years to come – with 5,000 entries so far. “As a village, we have a tradition of selling homemade cakes,” says Donna Duckworth, chair of the Jubilee Field charity in Clavering. The group will host a Big Lunch on the 4 June, with food stands and a beer tent. “The Queen of Puddings competition came about as we wanted a tasty, fun way to celebrate the Queen!” Houghton & Wyton’s Platinum Jubilee Party on 4 June has opted for cake rather than puddings, appraising the most regally decorated, while two local pubs will host outdoor bars. Over in Debden, four days of celebrations are lined up – some of which are historically themed. “It ties in with a period of the young Elizabeth’s life in the army during World War II, and her sudden ascension to the throne in 1952,” says
April Gardner at Debden Parish Council. “The food at the event will be very much of today. Yuva Fine Fusion restaurant in Debden is supplying for up to 150 people. This was a way to support a much-loved local business, which has been part of our community for the past 20 years.” Join in their Big Lunch on 5 June. Some festivities are more unusual. Witness an eel throwing competition and eel puppet procession at Ely’s Jubil-Eel Day on 5 June. The city’s Grand Jubilee Food, Produce and Craft Fayre on 3 June is more conventional – with a myriad of artisan foodie offerings. The Willingham Picnic on the Rec on 5 June, meanwhile, should boast finger sandwiches aplenty, hopes organiser Paul Knighton. “We deliberately went for The Vegan Witch as the only food truck, to accommodate the ever-growing number of people opting for the non-meat choice – and add a bit of uniqueness,” he says. “A community that eats together, stays together (or at least get along a little better!), and you always have a good atmosphere when there’s food around for everyone to enjoy,” Paul says. Planning to toast her majesty with kombucha, these Cambridgeshire events are testament to the evolution, driven by imagination and inspiration, of the Jubilee feast. We can’t wait to tuck in.
CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK JUNE 2022 57
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