Coronations Royal Recipes

The Royal family are steeped in tradition and throughout history

the royal tables have showcased culinary excellence.

In celebration of royal food...

We know it's the Queen's recipe

because we've got it in her own hand.

..from the present and the past...

That is proper regal.

..we recreate old family favourites.

Now, the Queen Mother had this really wicked trick with these.

What a mess!

We sample royal eating alfresco.

-Oh, wow!

-That is what you want!

And revisit the most extravagant times.

Peasant, stag, turkey, salmon,

oysters and turbot dressed in a lobster-champagne sauce.

Unbelievable!

This is Royal Recipes.

Hello, I'm Michael Buerk and welcome to Royal Recipes.

This is Audley End,

one of Britain's finest stately homes

built in the style of a royal palace and once owned by a king.

In the splendour of the gardens,

halls and kitchen at this grandest of country houses,

we will be recreating the food served at the highest royal table.

And it all starts here with this gem,

a royal kitchen maid's cookbook,

the only surviving recipe book of its kind in the Royal archive.

This is an exact copy of the original,

which is kept at Windsor Castle.

Inside, the recipes of Mildred Nicholls,

who worked at Buckingham Palace in the early 1900s.

And for the first time in over 100 years,

we'll be bringing these recipes back to life.

This time, we cook food served at the biggest royal spectacle of all,

the coronation.

When the Queen was crowned, people camped out on the streets.

27 million watched on television for the first time.

To mark this historic event,

new recipes were created for the Queen's guests and for her people.

Today, here in the Royal Recipes kitchen,

Michelin-star chef Paul Ainsworth creates his version

of the most famous coronation dish of all.

If there's something that's improved over the last 50 or so years...

-Thank you.

-..it's coronation chicken.

The daughter of Britain's first television cook

recreates her mother's coronation recipes, including melon balls.

You press firmly in, you pray, you turn

and, hey presto, a ball.

And chef Anna Haugh discovers how not to fish

for royal coronation salmon.

-Catch me a fish.

-We'll get you a fish.

In the kitchen wing of this stately home,

food from the most excessive coronation feast in British history,

to the more restrained menu of the present Queen's coronation meal.

Hello. This is the historic kitchen,

and joining me is Michelin-starred chef Paul Ainsworth.

-What do you think of it?

-It's fantastic, what a wonderful kitchen.

Now, Paul, when I mention the coronation, what do you think?

It's got to be chicken, hasn't it?

-Coronation chicken.

-It's got to be coronation chicken.

And there it is. It looks pink.

Yeah, well, this one is Rosemary Hume's,

so she invented the coronation chicken.

-Back in the '50s.

-Yeah, wonderful food writer.

-But why is it pink?

-Because of the red wine, which is unusual,

which isn't present in the modern recipe.

-Normally they're quite yellow, aren't they?

-Yeah.

And is that what you're going to do for us today?

And that's what I'm going to cook for you today.

A beautiful version of coronation chicken.

So, this is your modern take on it?

Yeah. The original version is quite heavy.

So what we've got over here, we've got two chicken breasts.

-Yeah.

-And this is a lovely way of cooking chicken.

We're just poaching, so it's keeping it lovely and most.

-Keeping it moist.

-But we've got a fragrant stock.

We got some coconut milk, some kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass,

ginger, little bit of salt, chicken stock and basically,

great to do at home, bring it up to a simmer,

turn the gas off and then just let it poach

for about 15 minutes and that chicken breast will be so succulent.

But those kind of ingredients,

lemon grass and all that sort of thing,

we'd never even heard of those in 1953.

No, and the whole idea of this is it's more southern India,

so it's lovely and fragrant.

-Yeah.

-Next, we've got this delicious coronation sauce.

Now, I've already sweated down the onions.

What I mean by sweating is we've just cooked without colour.

And to it I've added some turmeric,

some mango chutney and some curry powder.

Turmeric gives it that yellow...

Gives it that colour. But as you can see, not too much.

-Yeah.

-The curry powder's giving us that little kick and that nice heat.

Now, what's great about this dish, we're using all of the flavours,

so it's just two pots, so nice and simple to do at home.

Literally, we're just going to ladle some of our delicious stock that our

chicken's been cooking in.

So you can see like we're using all of the flavours.

Can you see it's got that kind of real bright yellow.

-Can I have a sniff?

-Yeah, absolutely, go in.

So the onions, the spices. Yeah.

Now, all we're going to do is reduce that right down

so we get this and this is the wonderful coronation chicken,

almost like paste but you see, it's a deep colour,

it's not that horrible yellow.

-Yeah.

-Absolutely delicious.

-Really rich.

So, we're going to go in our bowl.

And the reason I've let it cool down is because we're going to add

mayonnaise and yoghurt, and if you were to add that hot,

then you would split them out.

So we have some mayonnaise, which is absolutely delicious.

Some yoghurt. The yoghurt giving it a lovely acidity and the mayonnaise

giving it nice body and nice richness.

Bring those together.

So different from the one in 1953, isn't it?

-Absolutely.

-The one in 1953, interestingly enough,

it was considered pretty exotic at the time.

You know, it was only served to the foreign guests at the coronation?

-Right, OK.

-It was far too exotic for us!

-Why's that?

-Well, I suppose it was too spicy for British tastes.

So now you can see we've got this beautiful sauce.

Delicious.

So I've cooked two breasts, you've got all that,

now these kind of aromats, they've done their job now.

That lovely ginger, kaffir lime, you can smell that lemon grass.

Absolutely delicious. And it's as easy as this.

Just going to plate up.

Now, I like to carve the chicken,

just so I can show you it inside, just like that.

-Now, look at that.

-Oh, wow.

Just look how juicy and succulent that is.

Oh, it's exciting.

-OK.

-Yeah.

-And that's it, just as a two and you know what?

It's just about, it's refinement, that's all it is,

just taking your time with it, nice ingredients.

I mean, that chicken there is just so moist and tender and just full of

all that flavour from that lovely aromatic broth.

And now all I want to do is just take some of that

wonderful coronation sauce.

Not a lot of it because it's nice and we don't want to take away

too much from the chicken.

And not drown it, you know?

-Yeah.

-We want to taste the chicken

as well as that lovely coronation sauce.

You've got that wonderful acidity coming from the...

Coming from the yoghurt as well, little bit from the mayonnaise.

We're just going to finish that over with some lovely coriander and with

some lovely toasted almonds.

That gives us a nice crunch,

nice texture and the almonds go so beautiful with the chicken.

And do you know what?

A dish fit for a king, fit for a queen?

-I think so.

-So, Paul, the moment of truth, eh?

-Absolutely.

-The past against the present.

Rosemary against Paul.

I like that, the past against the present. Shall we have a taste?

-Yeah. The past first, I think.

-Yeah, absolutely.

Now, the Queen didn't have this, of course.

It was only the foreign guests at the coronation.

-It's not that bad, is it?

-No.

-It's a bit bland.

Bit bland, yeah.

And quite, that sort of fattiness from the mayonnaise.

Yeah, it's got a very rich...

Very rich, and the rice doesn't kind of take it up.

Well, that's a good start. Because I'm glad you don't like Rosemary's!

No, no, I wouldn't be disrespectful but, no, you're right.

-Try this on?

-Yeah.

-Would you like me to cut you a piece?

You get a bit of everything.

-I want a bit of everything.

-There we go.

-Oh, can I have that one?

-Yeah, go for it.

And what about you? There we go.

Now that is special.

-It's the texture of the chicken.

-Chicken.

-Really, really moist.

But it's that aromatic, you know, the lemon grass, the kaffir lime.

The chicken's almost like...

Like a sponge, really porous

and that's important to get that salt into the stock as well,

but all the flavours that are in that you can taste,

and then you've got that lovely mild sauce,

which has got that wonderful acidity from the yoghurt.

It's brilliant, it's really nice.

If there's something that's improved over the last 50 or so years...

-Thank you.

-...it's coronation chicken.

-Yeah.

-Well done, Paul.

-Yeah.

-I love it.

-Good.

It's certainly a light and aromatic dish.

I think it would appeal to a modern monarch's palette.

A celebratory coronation banquet

always showcases ingredients from around the United Kingdom.

Lamb from Wales and of course salmon from Scotland,

where the Royals seem to love fishing for it as much as eating it.

Scone Palace in Perthshire is an ancient site of royal coronations,

the perfect place for chef Anna Haugh to try her hand

at salmon fishing.

Scone Palace is on the banks of the River Tay,

which is the largest river in Britain, and it's full of salmon,

and I'm determined to catch one today, or at least try.

Scottish salmon is famous world over.

Ian Kirk is a gillie who's been fishing the waters here for years.

Ian, hi, how are you?

-Anna. I'm doing fine, yourself?

-Yeah, great. Nice to meet you.

And you. So you're here to catch a fish?

Yeah, I plan on catching a salmon today.

Well, I tell you, it's the right time of year,

it's the right place to do it.

-So, we'll get you kitted out and if our luck's in, our luck's in.

-OK.

Anna may be more familiar with cooking salmon than catching it,

but suited and booted, she certainly looks the part.

So why is it such a good place to fish it?

It's October, and that is the peak of the salmon season.

That's what I want.

Because the salmon like to hold up here at this time of year.

Simple as that. Where at the moment they're coming in from the sea and

they're heading upstream and we get first crack at them.

Scone Palace owns a six-mile stretch

of this prime salmon-fishing territory.

-Oh, it's beautiful here.

-Yeah, it's quite special.

Especially at this time of year

with the trees turning a beautiful shade of rust and red.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, this is the... We term this as being the lower Tay.

It's not as deep as people think.

It's quite shallow. Average depth six, seven feet here.

-Oh.

-Yeah.

-So it'll only be up to my waist, then, really?

Yeah. Maybe with your heels on, aye.

So, where's your glasses and we'll get you started.

-OK, let's go.

-Okey dokey.

The shades reduce glare from the water,

which makes it easier to spot the fish, in theory anyway.

It's a nice C shape, wonderful.

And rotate. On the telephone.

-Kind of.

-Kind of.

-First part was fantastic.

-OK.

-The second part was horrible.

Under Ian's expert guidance, Anna channels her inner fisherwoman.

Rotate the body,

up, two, three. Nearly.

Now, you've done that, you've done that pushing thing again.

-Yeah.

-How come you use this technique to catch them?

Well, fly fishing is the most artistic, it's the most balletic,

it's the most graceful form of catching a salmon.

What's so special about Scottish salmon?

The wild Scottish salmon, the texture of the flesh,

a fresh, wild Scottish salmon is a thing to behold.

When you, you'll know yourself, when you cook it,

even when you're cooking it and the taste, the meatiness, the flavour,

it's just perfect.

Do you think there's something special in this water

that makes it, you know, more delicious?

-Clean water, good feeding.

-Mm.

And good breeding habitat.

That's it, that's what makes them so special, absolutely.

-Catch me a fish.

-We'll get you a fish.

Anna gets the hang of casting, but despite her best efforts,

the salmon stay tantalising out of reach.

Look at that! That was two at once.

It looks like Anna's heading home empty-handed,

though some people are known to have better luck.

So I know the Royals love to eat salmon,

so I've also heard they like to fish for salmon.

I do know that they're very much into their salmon fishing.

They've got properties right beside

some of the best salmon rivers in Scotland.

Do you think that's an accident?

No. It's definitely not, it's definitely not an accident,

you know, when you are that stature, I want the house here.

-Why? Because there's a river.

-And I like to fish for salmon.

So, for my first experience of salmon fishing, it's been amazing.

I mean, I could understand why people would want to come here

and get lost for a day or half a day

just feeling the kind of beauty around them,

but also the fabulous experience of every splash of a salmon passing by.

-It is wonderful.

-It is.

It may not have been a catch fit for royalty,

but the river has cast its spell on our chef.

I just knew she wasn't going to catch a fish, didn't you?

It's not that she did it badly, they're camera shy.

Absolutely.

Well, clearly Anna's fish is here.

This is the one that got away.

-These menu cards, Paul, from several coronations.

-Yeah.

Show that the same dishes crop up time and time again,

salmon particularly.

Here's the Queen's father, George VI, his coronation, 1937.

-Yeah.

-Rosettes de saumon a l'Ecossais.

Scottish salmon, obviously.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Second course, the same, for the Queen's coronation,

rosettes de saumon Edinburgh.

It must be the same thing, only it's obviously some tribute to the

Duke of Edinburgh, but it's the same thing, isn't it?

Scottish salmon rosettes.

Yeah, I think growing up as a kid, like,

you always associate salmon with the Royal family, you know,

-like some good...

-They fish it, they eat it.

-..especially amazing Scottish salmon.

-But is it easy?

Yeah, absolutely, and you're going to have a go today as well,

you're going to help me rather than just watching.

-OK, come on.

-Right, ready?

Yeah, absolutely. Now, rosettes, noisettes, medallions.

Rosettes, so basically, rose, so we're going to roll it.

So I think a very royal thing, very regal.

So we've got some beautiful Scottish salmon.

And what we've done is what we call a gravadlax.

I don't really know what gravadlax is.

-Scandinavian.

-Yeah.

Because it's a way back in the day before fridges

-how they would keep fish.

-Yeah.

The recipe is salt, honey and whiskey in this instance.

It sounds more like curing, it's curing the salmon.

Absolutely. So it's a great way of preserving,

basically taking you through the winter.

It's very simple, it's just equal quantities of sugar,

some lovely Scottish sea salt,

beautiful Scottish heather honey

and then we've got some single malt whiskey.

And what we've done, we just put equal quantities of salt,

sugar and then we add in a little bit of honey,

just a little bit of whiskey, it's not a weighed amount,

just to make a paste.

So, we're going to take our salmon.

-Yeah.

-I'm going to cut us a couple of slices.

-And then I'm going to hand some over to you.

-Very thinly.

Very thin. Because it is cooked,

but it's cooked with the salt and the sugar.

Cured rather than cooked I suppose.

Yeah, no, well, no, it is cooked, so it's like ham.

So we've just got a couple of slices.

-You're doing it very carefully.

-Like that.

And what you basically want to do Michael is take the small end here.

-Yeah.

-And then just roll it.

And it's not actually that fiddly, but can you imagine doing this on a

-banquet scale?

-Yeah, this is the thing, you know,

you're doing this, but if you're doing it for several hundred people,

presumably they'd do it days and days in advance?

No, they wouldn't. They wouldn't because you want to get this nice

and fresh and you wouldn't want it to dry out.

So, we're just rolling them up like this and, can you see? Rosette.

-Yeah.

-It basically resembles.

-It looks like a rose.

-A little rose.

-Yeah.

-And then just, these are like petals at the top,

just pull them out like that.

Right, do you want to have a go?

-Can you trust me with that knife?

-Absolutely.

-With this lovely salmon.

It's very sharp but I'll watch over you.

-All right.

-I'll just get my finger in it!

Yeah, just the salmon, no fingers!

-No, all right!

-All right!

-Adding in a bit of body, literally!

-That's it, that's it, nice and thin.

Brilliant.

It's very, very thin.

-All right?

-Well, sort of, yeah. I was getting a bit clumsy there.

And then you roll it up.

They are slightly thick, so you'd want them to be a bit thinner.

And then you widen out at the top.

Yeah, you see, if you go a bit thinner, you get more of a rose.

But do you know what? That's fantastic.

THEY LAUGH

-All right.

-Very good.

-What do you think?

-Yeah, they're all right.

As it's you, we'll let them pass. They're your ones!

-All right, chef.

-You can eat those!

-Right, moving over here.

-Yeah.

-Horseradish.

-Yeah.

-Creme fraiche.

-Yeah.

-The two things go so well together. We're going to add

all of that in there and we're just going to mix it.

Is it just a matter of the creme fraiche

-diluting the power of the horseradish?

-Absolutely.

Creme fraiche, nice and creamy, but it has a wonderful acidity.

-Yeah.

-And that's what goes really nice because that's got...

That salmon is actually, it's got quite a, almost like a fat taste,

you know, really nice but quite rich,

so we just want something to really cut it.

-With a bit of bite to it.

-Absolutely.

And horseradish also contains wonderful acidity.

-Yeah.

-Which goes really nice.

Is there a danger that the very powerful horseradish taste

overwhelms the subtlety of the salmon?

Not really, because what you want, and like with anything, is balance.

So you don't want to have too much of one thing,

you want to balance them out.

So I've got some wonderful Scottish oatcakes.

I'm just going to lay them on our plate like so.

It really is a Scottish dish, isn't it?

Absolutely.

-And basically just a little bit.

-Oh, you put the horseradish on first?

Put the horseradish on first because the salmon will sit nice.

It's a nice little surprise.

When you bite into this canape,

you get a wonderful creamy hit of the horseradish. Like so.

It's quite simple then, really.

Now, if you want to grab your rosettes there.

-Yep.

-Grab your rosette there.

-Yeah.

-OK and just...

-And plop them on the top.

Literally, like that. Just plonk them on the top.

No messing around.

Mine looks an industrial version to yours, doesn't it?

There we go.

Mine look like roses, yours look like tulips.

Right, now take some watercress,

and again, this isn't here just for show, this is here for flavour.

Watercress, lovely and peppery.

My favourite salad.

And you know what, we're going to get some

of that lovely heather honey that's in the salmon

and then just go over our salmon

so you get this little hit of sweetness, as well when you go over.

-Shall we dig in?

-Yeah.

-Let's go.

-I'm going to have my fat one.

-Go on, go for it.

-There you go.

Oh!

Mm-mm-mm.

Great, aren't they. A little bit of horseradish.

Got that lovely texture of the salmon.

The different textures.

A bit of sharpness, oh!

Everything that's in there, you can taste,

it's all working beautifully together.

You can actually taste... You can certainly taste the honey.

Bit of a flavour of whiskey?

Yes, they're as current now as they were then.

And that is absolutely delicious.

-Keep talking.

-Go for it! Go for it!

You're enjoying that, aren't you, Michael?

That's good. Excellent.

Delicate rosettes of salmon, not too showy or extravagant,

a change in style,

and symbolic of a different way of celebrating royal coronations.

June 2nd 1953 witnessed a unique event - a televised coronation.

It was the first major live broadcast shown across the country,

and 27-million people tuned in.

The nation came to a standstill,

friends and families flocked to the homes which had one of these

new television sets.

One of those watching was Judith Patten,

the daughter of Marguerite,

television personality

and one of the most influential cooks in British history.

Welcome to Woman In The Home.

In this programme, we have a wide variety of items,

so I feel sure there's something to interest every one of you.

Judith and historian Doctor Polly Russell

are going back in time to cook the dish Marguerite created

for home cooks to serve as they watched the pageant on television.

And where better to cook than in a house decorated with '50s flair.

-Oh, my goodness!

-Gosh! This is amazing.

It really is, isn't it?

Is this reminiscent of your own home in the '50s?

No, we were a little more calmed down.

But this is incredible.

-This is, sort of, like, intense '50s, isn't it?

-It is.

Judith has only distant memories of the day,

the table groaning with food, and minute images on the television.

Imagine we're looking at that tiny television,

so you're watching dinky little things,

the size of Dinky toys going past. With rain.

I think, probably, eating would have been a good thing to do.

Your mother, two weeks before the coronation,

used the television programme to present a meal which she suggested

viewers could cook a day in advance of the coronation

and then have ready to serve on the day and actually eat

while watching the television so that nobody had to miss anything.

Looking at the menu that she produced, I would have, I think,

eaten the cheese straws, there was coronation chicken,

but I think I would have turned my nose up at that.

But she also had got an avocado dip, and God only knows what...

So it's a kind of menu that was very much a kind of special buffet

for this amazing day. Sort of really a banquet in the home.

For a whole nation.

It's very telling of its time, sort of, melon balls...

Oh, melon balls, those are good.

-I can do those.

-You can do a Patten special?

-Oh, yes.

Marguerite played a vital role in improving British cooking

after the war.

Her coronation menu typically mixed traditional favourites

with exotic delicacies.

We're going to try and replicate some of the food that your

mother cooked for the coronation in 1953.

-Right.

-We've got some of the ingredients here.

Avocados, obviously, featured for your mum, didn't they?

They did, because in the very first book she ever wrote for Harrods,

which I think was sort of '47, '48.

You opened it up,

there on the very first page of recipes is an avocado recipe.

It's really interesting, because my, sort of, my imagination of the 1950s

is that avocados would have been pretty rare.

Avocado-free zone.

We're going to make the melon cocktail that your mother served,

we're also going to make the seafood-rice ramekin as well.

-Right.

-You are going to teach me how to ball in melon.

-For a melon cocktail.

-Right, OK.

-Right, so we're going to need...

-You need a melon. You need a knife.

You've made quite a big play about the melon balls, Judith.

I should learn to keep quiet.

So we've got a melon baller for you here.

Right. This is a beautifully ripe melon.

You press firmly in, you prey, you turn, and,

-hey presto, a ball.

-That is fantastic.

Wartime rationing was still in force in 1953,

but Marguerite's recipes were cleverly designed

to make the smallest luxuries stretch a long way.

In the 1950s, you know, to serve this for a coronation, you know,

it's nice and light, and is not exactly, sort of, revolutionary.

But nevertheless, if you've been used to a, kind of,

stodgy food of wartime austerity Britain, very pleasant.

I mean, who taught you this?

I think it was a bit like mother's milk.

-It just came on board.

-Really?

-Yes.

Let me just see if I can do it.

-You go for it.

-It isn't as easy as it seems.

-No.

-I suddenly feel...

-I was feeling quite smug, and yet now...

I've got a flat-bottomed ball.

-There's a dance that goes with that!

-Flat-bottomed ball!

-Shall I start putting them on the glass?

-Yeah.

-Do you want to do the orange?

-OK.

-I think just...

With her coronation cuisine Marguerite was, perhaps,

unwittingly creating the first TV dinner.

Now we're going to make a seafood-rice ramekin.

Do you want to put that into the ramekins

-and it has breadcrumbs over the top.

-Right.

A mixture of crab meat, prawns and rice with cream and mayonnaise,

this was a dish designed to be made in advance and eaten hot or cold

whilst watching the big event.

It looks delicious. On with the breadcrumbs.

-These look fabulous, don't they?

-Yes, they do.

I think that is a fitting tribute to your mother, and also, you know,

it does say something about the food of that time.

You know, that actually is a classic example as well

of just how you would take very simple ingredients,

and you produce something that really looks pretty.

Yeah. It's lovely.

Not everyone was watching the coronation on TV screens.

Some had an even better view,

as one former choirboy recalls.

Martin Neary, here, was actually at the coronation.

You were 13 years old and a chorister at the service.

One of the Chapel Royal choristers.

What can you remember about that day? How did it start?

Well, it started, I perhaps should begin, with the night before,

because we actually were brought back to London

to go and sleep on the floor of the chapel

so that we would be able to be present early in the morning,

and not worry about the thronging crowds preventing us getting there.

What I do remember was that we were given a very good breakfast,

eggs and bacon in the chapel.

And that was meant to keep us going for the next six hours,

because we left St James's Palace at 7.30 in the morning,

to go up to Westminster Abbey where we had a practice.

And then we had quite a long wait

because the processions took an enormous time to get through.

And we, actually, sang the litany and procession

at about 10.30.

So that was two-and-a-half hours later.

And the service still hadn't begun.

And you couldn't take any snacks or anything like that

-to keep your strength up?

-No. They were forbidden.

One or two people may have sneaked something in,

but I'm not too sure.

We certainly didn't. What we were given were glucose tablets,

which were very much the flavour of the month in those days.

What is your memory of the service?

The outstanding memory, very briefly?

The outstanding memory of being present at this historic occasion,

never to be forgotten, having a wonderful view...

We were positioned in the galleries so that we could see

the Queen coming through,

going up to the altar, seeing the crowning of Her Majesty.

And to be present for that was just unique, really.

And what about afterwards?

After this huge, long service and all that you'd done.

Did you get a chance to join in with the coronation meal,

with the coronation chicken?

No. We didn't actually.

I heard later that the men had been offered the chance

of having a buffet lunch at Church House,

which they had to pay a pound.

But we were just driven back to Saint James's Palace, actually,

en route, via The Mall,

where we were able to see the royal processions, which was lovely.

When we got back to the chapel we were able then to receive medals.

But no food?

But we had to wait until we got home for more sustenance.

Are you a bit aggrieved about that?

Do you know? I don't think it occurred to us.

We'd actually experienced something quite unique. I was, really,

totally enamoured with the music.

And still, when I conduct things now,

I think back to those occasions when I play those pieces,

of that moment when the Queen came in

and we hear the first notes of I Was Glad of Parry,

and it takes you back 63 years.

-Still?

-It still does.

A coronation chicken might have done too, you know?

Well, I'm glad to say that I have sampled coronation chicken since,

but that was when I was considerably older.

Martin Neary, thanks very much.

When it comes to extravagance, few monarchs can compete with George IV,

his coronation banquet was arguably the most

over-the-top feast ever held.

Historian Doctor Matthew Green is treading in the footsteps of this,

the most famous Royal eater.

Supposedly known as Old Naughty,

Prince George finally got his hands on power when his father,

George III, descended into his final spell of madness in 1811.

At his beloved Royal Pavilion in Brighton, the Prince Regent had a

reputation for laying on the most extravagant banquets.

So it's no surprise his coronation was the biggest feast in history.

-Hi, David.

-Hello.

-How are you?

-Very well, thank you.

-What a fantastic place.

-Isn't it astonishing?

David Beevers is keeper of the Royal Pavilion,

and is taking Matt to the grand Banqueting Room

which gives some idea of George's dining habits.

Wow! Look at this. This is...

You often hear historical buildings described

as mesmerising and opulent, but this really takes the biscuit.

Yes, it is one of the most astonishing rooms in England.

It was finished in about 1818, 1819,

and is a, sort of,

monument to George's love of food and overindulgence.

So to modern sensibilities, this seems almost unimaginably lavish.

But in George's world, this wasn't, kind of,

the scene of his most lavish banquet?

That took place elsewhere, didn't it?

It did. At Westminster Hall in 1821, after the coronation.

-So that was his coronation banquet.

-A coronation banquet.

-1821.

He decided not to have it here, why was that?

Well, because traditionally

the coronation banquets were held in Westminster Hall.

But his was the last.

It was the greatest and most spectacular coronation banquet

in the whole of English history.

George turned it into, as here,

a kind of fantasy vision of the world that he wanted it to be.

-Expenditure was around £240,000.

-£240,000, yes.

How much in today's money is that roughly equivalent to?

Well, it's been computed to be about £20 million.

£20 million!

Yes, 350 people dined in the hall, and I was a bit puzzled, 350 people,

but 9,000 bottles of wine were issued.

9,000 bottles of wine? How many is that each?

Ah, but 350 dined in the hall,

but 2,000 others dined elsewhere in the Palace of Westminster.

In the House of Lords, the House of Commons, in various other...

So there are these meals all over Westminster?

They were all over the place.

At the time of George's coronation, Britain was the richest,

most powerful country in the world.

-Yes.

-And George wanted to make sure that he, as king,

represented England.

It's no surprise that George built the very finest kitchen,

fit for a king, and one of the most famous chefs of all time.

So here we are in the kitchen. Wow, this is where the magic happened.

And my first impression of this is that it's quite a show kitchen.

There is a great sense of space. It's very well lit.

You've got those beautiful row of windows.

Up there, it's not as though it's been buried away.

Is that true? Is it the kind

of place where people come and watch the cooking?

It's one of the first show kitchens, and George was very proud of it.

George himself, when he was the Regent,

or even when he was the king, would he have come down here?

He famously came here on one, and possibly two occasions,

a red carpet was put on the floor...

They laid a red carpet?

They laid a carpet and his chefs and scullions served him.

There was, for a time, a celebrity chef who worked here as well?

-Who was he?

-Marie-Antoine Careme.

He liked to be called Antonin Careme.

The most famous chef of all time, probably.

The first celebrity chef.

So he was, if you like, the Jamie Oliver of the 19th century.

Yes, absolutely. He was recruited in Paris, by the Prince Regent...

So he was quite a catch, to get this celebrity chef.

Absolutely. Netted this man who cooked for Napoleon.

Cooked for the Tsar of Russia.

It didn't work out in the long term, he only lasted about a year?

No, he was here less than a year.

What went wrong, is partly the Pavilion was a building site,

it rained most of the time he was here.

So he was working in a rain-lashed building site, not very nice.

But the main reason he went back to France was he was homesick.

George may have lost his star chef,

but his love of food grew and grew.

His weight reached 20st and his waist 50 inches.

I've got here an account from the Duke of Wellington

about George's almost last meal.

And this is just a week or so before he died.

This is what he had for breakfast.

Two pigeons.

Three beef steaks.

Three quarters of a bottle of Mosel.

A glass of champagne.

Two glasses of port and a glass of brandy.

-For breakfast.

-Wow!

Now, one can either say what gross extravagance, or one could say,

what an appetite for life the man had.

If that was for breakfast, I dread to think what he had for dinner.

Well...

The legacy of George's love of food lives on.

100-years later, Buckingham Palace kitchen maid Mildred Nicholls

has recipes by royal chef Careme in her notebook,

including this rich desert, creme a la Careme,

a likely favourite of the gourmand king.

Not exactly a picky eater, was he?

Far from it. Far from it.

-Death by knife and fork...and glass, I would imagine.

-Absolutely.

But he was ahead of the game with his French chef, wasn't he?

Monsieur Careme.

I think he invented haute cuisine.

So it's no surprise, really, that some of his recipes actually

feature in this wonderful old recipe book from the kitchen maid

at Buckingham Palace, Mildred Nicholls.

And here we are, you know, in her fountain pen, you know,

the spelling's not very good.

But creme a la Careme.

Not much detail here, though, is there?

-There's not.

-Is there something there for you to build on?

Hugely. And I'm so excited about showing you this dish.

Right, so what we've got is, we've got some lovely sponge fingers,

and orange jelly. That's the first part of this dish.

So what we're going to do, Michael,

is just dip the fingers into the jelly.

And they basically... We build those around the edge.

You can see I've started some already.

They're like soldiers, aren't they? Around the edge there.

They are. They're lovely. And the jelly just soaks into the sponge.

And that really is our base that's going to, like,

sit right the way around.

This is not going to be Weight Watchers dish of the

-week, is it?

-Not this one, no.

This really is a great dinner party dish,

because it's got such a wow factor.

And this jelly's not complicated.

This is just the package jelly, you know, the stuff you had as a kid.

That I would eat raw.

Before it was in jelly, like it was sweets.

And you, a Michelin-starred chef, are admitting this, are you?

-You are getting your jelly out of a packet?

-Absolutely.

What other... No, I'd better not ask you what other short cuts you do.

No. We've got these lovely fingers going all the way around.

Now, with the excess orange jelly,

-we're just going to pour that into the base.

-Yeah.

So when we turn it out,

we're going to have this wonderful set jelly on top.

It really has got a wonderful wow factor to it.

And now just add a bit more indulgence.

We're going to add some kirsch.

Just with a brush. Gently up the side.

You're going to brush it, you're not going to slosh it on?

No, that lovely orange working around.

And we've got that lovely kirsch working

right in to the sponge like that.

-Lovely.

-OK. And it's so lovely, orange.

That lovely cherry, light liquor.

Beautiful. Now if I could just give you that, Michael.

We're just going to set that in the fridge.

-OK.

-And while you're gone, I'm going to start the creme anglaise.

-I'll be back in two ticks.

-Excellent.

Now, this is what I'd call custard, is it?

-This is custard, exactly.

-It doesn't look like custard.

No, and it's basically not the powdered version,

we're going to make a proper fresh version.

-Not out of the packet this time.

-Not out of the packet this time!

Although I do like that as well.

So in here we're going to have egg yolks.

-OK.

-Straight in like that.

Sugar.

-Ordinary sugar? Caster sugar?

-Ordinary sugar.

And then on here we've got vanilla and milk,

and we're just going to bring that to a boil.

We're not going to like, scolding boil, just to a simmer.

Whilst we're doing that, I'm going to take our whisk,

and very gently... This is important, actually, this bit.

That you whisk the egg yolks and sugar together

until they, kind of, go pale.

And what you are doing, you're just really breaking...

The colour's actually changing.

Yes, it's changing as they do it.

And the more I do it, it will go, like, really, really pale.

And what you are doing is your beating the sugar,

almost dissolving it into those egg yolks.

See how it's going nice and pale?

Our lovely milk-andvanilla mixture's coming to the boil.

-So in with our hot liquid.

-Yeah.

Just moving it around, and then we're quickly moving it around.

Now, what you're doing, is that lovely hot temperature from the milk

is now starting to cook that egg yolks and sugar.

-Yeah.

-Now we return to the pan.

And we want all of that lovely vanilla flavouring there.

One of my favourite ingredients, vanilla.

Back onto the heat.

And what we're going to do, we want to cook that the egg yolks,

and we're going to take the egg yolks, probably through about

75, 80 degrees.

And what happens is they then start to set,

and that's how the custard thickens.

And also we cook out that lovely egg-yolk mixture.

Now, here I've got gelatine.

And what we're going to do, we're just going to add that in,

pull it off heat now. And just let it dissolve.

Can you see how thick that custard's becoming?

Just instantly, really, isn't it?

And once that cools down,

our custard's going to really set and just become almost like what the

French would call creme patissier. Like a really thick custard.

Yes, I know that term.

-What we do now, we just pass that...

-Oh, right.

-So the pods, the vanilla pods.

-Just the pods.

And as you see, because we've kept an eye on it,

because we kept moving it, nothing's coagulated,

there no lumps or anything.

Now we just transfer that over here.

I've got one here that we've done.

And as you can see, it's gone lovely and thick.

-All right.

-Oh, yes.

-So we're just going to bring that back.

Here we've got some candied orange.

We're going to add that.

All in. And that will just start to infuse into the custard as well.

Orange and custard, they are so delicious together.

We're going to fold back through.

It looks like costume jewellery, doesn't it?

Absolutely lovely. So we're just going to get those out of here.

Now we're going to move over to spooning the cream in.

Just get that cream in.

You do a lot of spooning the cream in, don't you, really?

We do. We do.

Just a bit. In fact, do you want to spoon it in for me?

And I'm just going to stir it in gently.

-You want some more in?

-Yeah, go for it.

We're just doing it gently, because we don't want,

we don't want to lose the body in the cream.

What we've done there, Michael,

we've whipped it to what we call just past, like, a yoghurt stage.

-Yes.

-Like the thickness of yoghurt.

-Keep going.

-Yeah. There's a lot of air in it.

-Absolutely.

And we want to keep that volume in there so it stays nice and light.

And this is, essentially, what you call a bavarois.

Which is a very, sort of, classic French, kind of...

More cream than actual custard?

You'd be like George IV if you ate all this, wouldn't you?

So, Michael, if you could now go and get me back our tian

-that we've done earlier.

-OK.

Lovely, in there. Yes, Chef. Thank you very much.

-No fanfare this time.

-Is it nice and set?

-Yeah.

It looks like it. Why do you call it a tian, by the way?

I thought tian was something different.

-It's like the mould.

-Oh, it means mould, so it could be anything.

-Yes.

-So now we just get... Start to spoon that.

-Oh.

-Lovely mixture.

-Glutinous, isn't it?

And there's no nice way to do this.

Get it in there. Get it in there!

And it's going, "Blop!"

But you know what, as you'll see, when we turn this out,

you've got your guests, they'll absolutely thank you for it.

I keep forgetting that you're actually, at the end of the day,

-just going to turn it over like a proper mould, eh?

-Yeah.

OK. So we've got that in there.

There's lots of things to get your finger around on this one.

I'm just going to brush some more kirsch over our sponge.

It's just absolute indulgence.

-Don't stint on the kirsch.

-No, no.

And now if we just go underneath there like that.

-Don't break it.

-And just one fell swoop like that.

-Pat it down a bit.

-And that's it.

Pat it down. A bit more kirsch. Around the layers.

Like that. It's gorgeous, isn't it?

So, Michael, if I could just give that to you.

Pop that in the fridge, and that's going to set.

-I shall be very careful.

-And you should find one that I did earlier.

-You should.

-I might not come back.

-I'm going to have a little tidy up.

-OK!

Ta-da!

Yes! Yes! Look at that!

Well, I say that I hope it's not being held together by this.

No, I was going to say... Aren't you a bit nervous, you know?

-I am nervous.

-You lift it up and it all goes...

Are you ready? I feel we should do it together.

You want to blame me, don't you? If it goes wrong.

-Right.

-Shall I do it?

-Yeah. Let's go. Gently. Gently.

-PAUL CHUCKLES TRIUMPHANTLY

-Yes! Look at that!

Right. Where's the knife?

Now, tell me. That is proper regal, isn't it? That is royal.

Proper regal, I don't know.

-Would you serve that to the Queen?

-Moment of truth, are you ready?

I'm going to cut a slice, you grab the plates.

So we've taken a nice warm knife, take a lovely wedge.

WET SLICING

Oh, I love that sound.

It's nice and solid, isn't it?

Oh, it's... Yeah. But not over set.

And you know what, for a really nice setting time...

Oh-ho-ho-ho!

In fact, do you know what? We're not going to muck about.

We're going to stand it up.

-Look at that.

-Just a slight wobble.

And that's exactly what you want.

You can just see that cream's nice and light.

I would recommend setting that overnight.

One, the flavours develop, and two, everything just settles,

and it will just set beautifully.

And you watch how light that is in the mouth.

It's... I can't wait...

-Let's dig in! Come on!

-Can we eat it?

-Let's go, let's go!

-That spectacular, isn't it?

-It's wonderful.

I promise you, it's not like rubber, it's soft and beautiful.

-Can I eat the thing now?

-Go! Get in there.

You stop talking and we can eat.

-Now, can I take it from this end?

-You do whatever you like.

Go on. I won't do it until you have a bit as well.

-Ready.

-Yeah.

Mm-mm-mm.

-That's good, no?

-We're off now.

-Yeah.

-I'm having that.

That's the end of our celebration of coronations.

See you next time.

Right, what are you having?

This one here.