Top 10s Top 10 feasts in history

Date Published:

26/01/2009

4Food continues to look at 10 notable noshes in history

Dedicated to introducing exotic plants and animals to new habitats - sometimes with disastrous results - the British chapter's launch feast determinedly sought ingredients from all corners of the world. Aside from the flood of booze befitting Victorian scientific society soirees, the menu ranged far and wide and prefigured the eclectic variety we're used to today: bird's nest soup, beche de mare, steamed kangaroo, Syrian pig, curassow, Honduras turkey, pineapple sorbet and seaweed jelly were on offer, though not many vegetables made the grade, no matter where they were from.

Inspired? Eat something exotic.

When the French celebrity chef, Antonin de Careme - who had cooked for Tallyrand, the Rothschilds and the tsar of Russia - was invited to Brighton by the gourmandising George IV, he was expected to rise to the occasion befitting a future king. He didn't disappoint: the ornate dining room of the Brighton Pavilion became the setting for over 120 dishes of the highest calibre with a decorative focal point of pieces montees - architectural confectionary depicting the ruins of Antioch, bucolic hermitages and a Turkish Mosque standing feet high.

Cook your own regal feast with stuffed shoulder of lamb and grouse pie, then decorate your cake.

One archbishop - the newly ordained George Neville - 2,500 guests and servants, and over 40,000 items of meat and poultry: clearly the event planners had decided that the new man and his guests needn't be humble before God or nature - and the latter supplied a vast menagerie for the feast. Military-style camp kitchens were erected by an army of cooks and serving staff for this astonishing banquet, with a shopping list that included wild bulls, 300 'veales', 400 swans, 5,000 geese, 1,000 sheep, 3,000 'piggs', 5,000 custards, 6,000 jellies and 13,000 items of confectionary. And for those still feeling game? Wilder ingredients ranged from 1,000 egrets and 400 peacocks to 12 'porpisses and seales'.

Try these recipes for British game.

Nero, Elagabalus, Vitellius; where to start? As the Roman Empire stretched across continents, the extent of its trade and culinary representations of its power inflated accordingly. The elite became harder to satisfy and their theatrical and gastronomic feasts rose to surreal heights in order to excite palates and establish social status. Emperor Elagabalus' banquets included camel heels, flamingo brains, parrot heads and cockscombs from live birds as mechanical devices rained flowers overhead in alarming profusion. Emperor Vitellius' 'shield of Minerva' required a scouring of the empire for ingredients: lampreys' soft roe, flamingo tongues, pike livers and more bird brains. Nero's guests were entertained with wild animals and bizarre stage effects, and food wasn't the only thing on the menu: sexual entertainment - for theatre and indulgence - was rarely far from the menu.

Food fads in history - their urges and purges.

After all the decadence, a simple meal that's perhaps the best known of all: the Last Supper. Commemorated by the symbolic consumption of bread and wine in the Eucharist, the actual meal eaten by Christ and his disciples is a matter for debate, but might have comprised unleavened bread, lamb and honey, spiced fruits, red wine and fish.

Celebrate biblical-style with these recipes for loaves and fishes.

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

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