Top 10s Top 10 feasts in history

Date Published:

26/01/2009

When it comes to big formal feasting, the stuff that's in the history books focuses on religious, political and aristocratic pageantry

Without scribes, painters or journalists around, much private gluttony has long been forgotten. There are exceptions though, as you'll find as 4Food looks at 10 notable noshes in history.

Resigned to their fetes

Whatever their cost, modern banquets don't have quite the same flavour of decadence feasts once had. How about live songbirds folded into napkins, (in honour of Giuliano and Lorenzo de' Medici, 1513), a dwarf under the table, trained elk and - allegedly - death by burst bladder (dinners hosted by Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe, late 16th century) or England's Henry I, who died gorging on 'a surfeit of lampreys' in 1135. We look at the fetes of the great and the good.

After weathering Washington's chill, the freshly anointed president warmed up with an intimate meal for 200 in the US Capitol Building. The menu was inspired by the bicentenary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, used seasonal foods and attempted to traverse the country for ingredients. Guests were served local seafood stew, game birds, Southern molasses whipped sweet potatoes and apple cinnamon sponge cake.

Cook your own executive feast with these recipes from 4Food. Seafood stew, roast duck breast and cinnamon and apple pud - perhaps not a feast but a meal rich with significance, nonetheless.

E.M.W. was the rather bombastic title for a series of charity dinners hosted by the King of Thailand and cooked by mostly French Michelin-starred chefs. The menu included 'creme brulee of foie gras with Tonga beans', 'tartare of Kobe beef with Imperial Beluga caviar and Belons oyster', and lots of truffle-heavy dishes accompanied by very expensive booze atop one of Bangkok's tallest skyscrapers. The price? About US$25,000.

For your own shellfish and wine fest, watch Marcello Mastroianni demonstrating his oyster eating technique in La Grande Bouffe or map out a regional feast.

Another president, another continent. Things are done differently in France... When the dying ex-French President Francoise Mitterrand was told he had little time left, he planned a meal that sought to represent the French Republic through cuisine. The menu included foie gras, oysters, capons and the ortolan bunting, a tiny songbird prepared by drowning live in Armagnac, before being plucked, seasoned, roasted and served whole. Some in south western France consider the illegal delicacy symbolic of the French soul and the highest of all cuisines, yet rarely does the ethics of what we eat get as intimate as the traditional way to consume ortolan. A white napkin is placed over the head to capture the aroma as the diner crunches through bone, guts and brain, and, connoisseurs suggest, to hide the act from god. Mitterrand didn't eat again, and died within 10 days of his last meal.

Are you game? How about snipe on toast or game bird pie?

Why dine at a table when you can eat on horseback? Wealthy New Yorker C.K.G. Billings thought exactly that when planning to celebrate the opening of his new inner city stables. 32 horses were taken by lift to a hotel ballroom that had been decorated as a rustic hunting scene so that guests could dine on horseback, served by waiters dressed as grooms. Diners' plates were attached to saddles and to democratise proceedings, decorated feeding troughs were presented to the horses so that rider and beast could eat together.

Get creative - why not be the host with the most and put on a decadent dinner party?

When cities get caught up in war and famine, pity the local fauna - particularly when it's conveniently caged. Zoos have provided walk-in protein bazaars in a number of crises in history, and in the decadence and corruption stakes, the mayor of a district of Paris probably takes the cake. The city was under siege and Monsieur Bonvalet thought it wise to 'test' the suitability of wild animals for feeding the public should the need arise. For his humanitarian efforts, a famous restaurant served camel roasted 'English-style', elephant and roast bear in a pepper sauce along with much fine wine. Needless to say that the citizens of Bonvalet's arrondissement weren't invited for a second bout.

Could you eat an elephant?

Fancy a feast? Try these recipes for feast-like roasting.

Catch up on Heston Blumenthal's show, Heston's Feasts