As far as train lunches go, you’ve got to beat them. Starting with plenty of caviar, the menu moves through trout, lamb, chicken and partridge, asparagus and cheese soufflé, before finishing with some serious puddings. It’s certainly better than a Greggs sausage roll.
But this was not just any lunch, but rather a feast served to Edward VII aboard a train from Paris to Cherbourg on May 4, 1903. And one of ten royal menus about to be auctioned at Drouot Auctioneers in Paris .
They range from a dinner for Queen Victoria at Balmoral in October 1885, to the dinner served after the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales in 2011. And they make for fascinating reading, an insight into more than a century of royal dining.
“Good digestion was essential in those days,” noted Gabriel Tschumi, a chef who started with Victoria and ended his career as Queen Mary’s Royal Chef, “when every meal was equivalent to an actual banquet.”
Take that dinner at Balmoral on 20 October 1885. The menu was deeply seasonal, as royal menus were and still are. They were written in French (idem) and full of fruits of royal estates. Soups, fish, gizzard croquettes, roast poultry and beef, savory and flans. A marathon, more than a sprint.
Buckingham Palace 1981: Guests at Charles and Diana’s wedding feasted on egg-shaped poached brill mousses served in lobster sauce, followed by boneless chicken with crispy skin, buttered broad beans, creamed sweet corn, new potatoes and salad. Dessert was strawberries and clotted cream.
Queen Victoria 1885: Dinner at Balmoral began with calf’s head pâté, trout and turbot coated in breadcrumbs, followed by veal sweetbread croquettes, venison chops, fattened salt-crusted chicken and roast beef. The main course was pheasant and chicken, with fried puffed potatoes. Dessert was a ginger and almond tart soufflé filled with vanilla and orange blossom cream. For those who still had room, there was a side table with cold cuts that included tongue and beef.
Buckingham Palace, April 2011: William and Catherine chose a very British menu with dishes from all corners of the country, including an elegant nod to the bride’s Berkshire roots to accompany William’s favorite chocolate parfait.
Buckingham Palace Menu 1911: George V’s guests began lunch with beef broth followed by lobster schnitzels. Then came cold jellied chicken, Russian-style quail with apples, lamb chops, jellied chicken and tongue, and ham with mushrooms, sausage, and truffle. Plover eggs, muffins and sandwiches followed. For dessert there was fruit jelly with champagne, chocolate mousse, cakes and baskets of sweets.
Windsor Castle 2008: For French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his ex-wife, supermodel Carla Bruni, brill fillet was served followed by a main course of lamb medallion with artichokes and broad beans, cauliflower in hollandaise sauce, carrots with tarragon and potatoes thinly sliced. and salad. Dessert was rhubarb pie with vanilla cream and fruit. Note the quality of the wines: Margaux 1961, currently on sale for £2,340, and a magnum of Krug 1982, now £3,950.
The White House 2007: President George W. Bush hosted a dinner for Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. First up was the pea and lavender soup with chive-infused waffles topped with American sturgeon caviar. Next, on golden-edged plates, sole fried in butter, followed by lamb in chanterelle mushroom sauce and vegetables. A salad of arugula, savannah mustard greens and crisp romaine lettuce was served with champagne dressing. After a cheese plate, guests enjoyed sweet “rose blossoms.”
Victoria’s son, Edward VII, was one of history’s great defenders. As one biographer so aptly noted, he “never played with his food.” The more cream, brandy and foie gras, the better.
His son, George V, was a sailor and his tastes were much more austere. Although official royal lunches and dinners were largely high church French cuisine (as seen on the menu at Buckingham Palace on 9 May 1911), at home he preferred British comfort food (chops, roasts and pie homemade) or the curry, which I loved.
Perhaps the last great old-school banquet was the one the French government hosted for the king and queen to “consolidate the entente cordiale” in April 1914, three months before the start of the First World War. Starting with the turtle soup, there were 18 dishes, including foie gras, Bresse chicken with truffles and a Veuve Clicquot champagne sorbet.
But as the restrictions of war hit hard, King George and Queen Mary were determined to set an example for their subjects. Alcohol was banned, to the family’s horror, breakfast was reduced from ten courses to two, lunch was reduced to three courses, and meat was served no more than three times a week. This was the beginning of the end of the great royal banquet.
George VI was also a man who preferred the plain, although his wife Queen Elizabeth (later Queen Mother) certainly appreciated good food. But the soft power of the state banquet is more important than ever. And these menus are an elegant reminder of “soufflé diplomacy” at its finest.
- Tom’s book, Cooking And The Crown: Royal Recipes From Queen Victoria To King Charles III, is due out later this year.