Extravagance Royal Recipes

Hello, I'm Michael Buerk.

Welcome to a brand-new series of Royal Recipes.

This time, we're at Westonbirt House,

formerly a grand country house,

now a boarding school, which has played host to royal visitors for

over 100 years.

In this series, we're delving even further back in time to reveal over

600 years of royal food heritage.

You play Anne Boleyn

and I will play Henry VIII.

And we've busy been unlocking the secrets of Britain's great

food archives, discovering rare and unseen recipes that have been royal

favourites through the ages

from the earliest royal cookbook in 1390...

It's so precious, so special, that I'm not allowed to touch it.

..to Tudor treats from the court of Henry VIII.

I can't wait for this.

One, two, three.

We'll be exploring the great culinary traditions enjoyed by the

royal family, from the grand to the ground-breaking,

as well as the surprisingly simple...

I did think that was going to be a disaster.

Whoo!

..as we hear from a host of royal chefs...

Prince Philip would walk past or pop his head in and was like,

"What's for dinner? What we having?"

Oh, yeah, it's not just a normal kitchen.

..and meet the people who provide for the royal table.

If it's OK for the Queen, it's OK for everyone.

Welcome to Royal Recipes.

In today's programme, we're exploring royal extravagance,

and in the past,

they didn't do things by halves.

Some of the culinary extravaganzas produced by royal chefs down the

centuries were legendary.

Today on Royal Recipes, we discover the scale of one royal appetite.

This is a banquet with more than 120 different dishes.

Chef Anna Haugh is on a secret mission.

I'm afraid at this point I'm going to have to put a blindfold on you.

And we'll hear about the lengths a would-be suitor

went to to win the hand of a queen.

He spent so much money that he bankrupted himself for the

rest of his life.

I'm here in the Royal Recipes kitchen with Michelin-starred chef

-Paul Ainsworth. What's cooking?

-Mock Turtle Soup.

MICHAEL LAUGHS

-Mock Turtle Soup.

-Yes!

-As opposed to real turtle soup?

Yes, as opposed to... There's no turtles around here.

No turtles have been harmed in the in the production of this programme.

-No.

-OK. Now, this is,

as served at a dinner,

Christmas dinner, for Queen Victoria and the royal family in 1895...

-Right, OK.

-..at Osborne House, her

favourite palace, on the Isle of Wight.

-First course.

-Well...

-Mock turtle soup. What do you do?

I've been so excited about showing you this recipe,

cos I love it so much.

In here, I've just taken some of this beautiful consomme.

How long does it take to get that meat there into that consomme there?

Right, that meat will go into a pan

with those vegetables that you can see round the platter.

That will come up to a simmer and then actually cook for seven hours.

-Seven hours!

-OK? Really slowly.

And then all of that lovely gelatinous quality that's in the

trotters and especially the shin of beef will be going into the stock.

We then sieve that off, reduce it right down,

and then we get to the stage where we then make consomme.

So you'd bring the stock up to the boil, whisk in some egg whites,

very gently let the egg whites rise to the top,

and as the egg white's rising to the top,

it's dragging all the impurities with it.

Underneath will be crystal clear stock.

It's so intense in flavour.

We're just going to put into this pan a little bit of that consomme,

some peeled and finely chopped celery,

peeled and finely chopped carrot, and peeled and finely chopped swede.

-Right.

-Now, we want to get the flavour happening straight away,

-so we're just going to crush some sea salt just in there...

-Mmm-hmm.

..and leave it like so.

Now we're going to move over to where the mock turtle come from.

-Yeah.

-So, basically, this recipe was used with green turtles,

but they were seen as a status symbol - very, very expensive,

so the mock came in for the people

that couldn't afford the green turtles.

They would use things like beef shin...

-Yeah.

-..pig's trotters, tongue, cos it had the same gelatinous,

-rich qualities that you...

-Got from...

-..jellied...

-Jellied, that the turtle would have had.

-..from the green turtle.

The original turtle soup was a by-product of the

slave trade. The sailors in the West Indies would catch the turtles,

they'd bring them back home, and the aristocracy saw this,

rather liked it. It became very fashionable, very elegant,

particularly at big banquets.

In fact, real tradition at the Lord Mayor's banquet, turtle soup.

-Yeah.

-But because they loved them so much, they caught them.

15,000 a year were coming to Britain.

But they were hunted to extinction.

So they were either just too expensive or not available at all,

so people had to try and find something that tasted like turtle to

-go in the soup.

-Yeah.

-Hence, mock turtle.

-All right.

-So what are you going to do now?

-So, next...

Nothing gets wasted.

We've then shredded the meat off of the trotter,

the tongue, we've diced,

and the beef shin there...

-Yeah.

-..we've got. Now leave those out, picked, at room temperature.

OK? So they're going to go over there ready for when we plate up.

-Yeah.

-Next,

which was quite traditional with this recipe,

was what they called a forced meat ball.

-Well, forcemeat's stuffing, isn't it?

-Absolutely.

So if you could add into that bowl for me...

-OK.

-We've got some finely chopped smoked bacon,

breadcrumbs and suet.

-There is a spoon. OK?

-OK.

-All right.

-Yeah, will do.

Good. I'm going to go behind you and grab...

-Do you remember...

-...this bowl.

..in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, isn't it?

-Yes.

-There was a mock turtle.

-Yes, there was.

-And the mock turtle had a calf's head.

-It was a turtle's body...

-Yeah.

-..with a calf's head.

Presumably because they made this soup from calf's head as well?

So, traditionally, traditionally,

-that there would be a calf's head.

-Yeah.

OK.

Going to add in one egg, so carry on mixing, please, Michael.

-OK.

-Seasoning.

-Yeah, always seasoning.

-Always seasoning.

Right, I'm just going to get our pan on because once we've made these

dumplings, we're going to fry them off.

Right, last but not least, some

beautiful, fresh, chopped parsley...

-Right.

-..and a good twist of cracked black pepper.

-Now, and you can see...

-And this is your forcemeat dumpling?

-OK, and that's it.

-Shall I do a bit of that?

-Go on, have a go.

-It's just a matter of...

-On the tray.

-Just about rolling it, isn't it?

-It is, yeah.

-All this chef-ing business is simple, isn't it?

My game's easy. Excellent.

Our vegetables are nice and ready to go.

So, in here, Michael, I've just got a little bit of oil.

And, basically, the oil will make sure the butter won't burn and then

the butter's giving us that wonderful flavour.

-Over here, we're going to take our dumplings.

-Yep.

All right? And then just into here.

And just move them around in the pan, like so.

Little bit more butter.

And then we'll just turn our heat down, just a touch.

Royal Christmas dinner, Osborne House.

It was Victoria's favourite palace, you know, on the Isle of Wight.

That was where she retreated after her husband Prince Albert died.

-Right.

-Went into almost complete seclusion

for a very, very long time.

Long period of mourning.

Wore black for years and years and years.

She had all her children and grandchildren there.

These days, the royals have

Christmas at Sandringham, don't they?

But Victoria was so fond of Osborne on the Isle of Wight,

she was there in August, you know,

for Cowes Week and all that kind of stuff, and at Christmas as well.

-Don't they look wonderful?

-They certainly do.

-And they're ready.

-Wow.

Look at them. Gorgeous, aren't they?

-They certainly are.

-So we'll just put those over here.

And now we're going to start to plate up.

-Yeah.

-Right, so, I'm going to take a

little bit of this shredded shin.

Some of that beautiful shredded pig's trotter.

Lovely tongue going round the outside.

So taste and texture there, eh?

-Taste and texture. Every day.

-OK.

Now, we've got those lovely vegetables going over the top.

-Finely diced vegetables.

-Yeah. And they're just nice and soft and

beautifully seasoned with that stock.

-Yeah.

-Now, we've got our dumplings.

Ah, right, you are draining them a bit.

-Just draining them off, OK?

-Yeah.

-Just... And the reason for is that

the butter's done its job. See how crispy they are on the outside?

We don't want that fat to then go into our lovely consomme that

-we've made.

-OK.

-OK?

So we're just going to put

three on top, like so.

Like that.

OK?

Now, don't pour the consomme over the top.

-Go from the side.

-OK.

This is a real British classic dish, isn't it, Paul?

-It is.

-In fact, in the '30s, Heinz even

did a tin version of it.

-Did they really?

-Yeah.

-I bet that was delicious!

-Now, come on, don't be... I'm sure it was great.

-Yeah.

But it wasn't anything like this.

No.

I absolutely love this recipe so much.

-Can I try it?

-Go for it. Go on.

-You sure?

-Yes!

Mmm.

-It's nice, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-It's...

The consomme bit is really intense.

-Yeah.

-And you've got so many different textures and so many

different flavours.

You can see why it was such a principal part of all those big

ceremonial banquets.

It's really substantial, isn't it?

-It is.

-And yet, you know, Christmas dinner, 1895,

this was just the first course.

After that, they had turbot,

lobster, turkey with chipolatas...

-Even back then!

-Even back then.

Asparagus, mince pies, plum pudding, chocolate eclair,

and on the side they had baron of beef, boar's head, game pie,

brawn, and hot roast beef.

-My goodness.

-It really, like,

blows me away how much they would consume back then.

-Absolutely.

-It's, you know, really rich eating and living, isn't it?

-Yeah. Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Absolutely.

But mock turtle soup,

absolutely delicious, and not a single turtle was harmed...

-No.

-..in making this dish.

A modern, meaty take on a dish originally a staple of

18th-century sailors

and the Georgian aristocracy.

Georgian royalty certainly had a taste for the finer things of life,

and this was reflected in the ingredients used in royal cooking.

In the 18th century,

truffles were often used to flavour sauces and gravies.

These days, many of the truffles we consume come from overseas,

but there's a growing trend for UK truffle farming.

So precious is the crop that today's

truffle producers insist on complete secrecy.

Chef Anna Haugh went to meet truffle hunter Zak Frost

and his truffle dog, Stanley.

I'm afraid at this point I'm going to have to put a blindfold on you

and lead you the rest of the way.

-OK.

-So if you don't mind just slipping this on.

OK, you're going to have to guide me, though.

-All right. OK.

-Stan the man, don't trip me up.

-This way.

ANNA LAUGHS

These woods are...somewhere in Wiltshire,

and absolutely bristling with wild truffles.

I think you can now take the mask off.

-Oh, wow.

-So, this is it. Welcome to the truffle woods.

So, can we go truffle hunting?

Yeah, why not? Let's find some truffles.

The peak season for English truffles

is the autumn, when the damp,

cold conditions give them their pungent aroma.

But they'd be almost impossible to find without Stanley.

So, has Wiltshire always been famous for truffle hunting?

Well, yeah, it has, actually. There's been a tradition of truffle

-hunting in Wiltshire going back a few centuries.

-Oh, wow.

And there were once a number of professional truffle hunters in the

area, supplied truffles to the

gentry in London and the royal family.

They were always a luxury product.

And then, the most famous of these was the Collins family,

particularly Eli Collins,

who, for many years, was the premier truffle hunter of the area, and

held a Royal Warrant, as well.

And he was a part of six generations of truffle hunters.

-But then his son Alfred was the last of the line...

-Oh!

..and that was around the 1930s.

And what brought about the demise of truffle hunting?

There's a number of factors.

There's the modern farming methods -

a lot of the old woodlands were cleared.

And then a big issue, also, was the two World Wars where a lot of

young men died, and they were obviously distracted from things

like truffle hunting, and then the secrets weren't really passed

on to the next generation.

It's only recently it's been reawakened and English truffles

-are back on the menu.

-Wow.

And, seemingly, back on the royal menu.

In 2006,

the Duke of Edinburgh planted a one-acre truffle orchard at

Sandringham in the hope that it will one day

provide for the royal kitchens.

Is that a truffle, Stan? Show it to me.

Oh!

Aren't you a clever boy?

Yeah, good boy.

You see here, we've found a whole nest of about ten truffles.

Oh, wow, there's loads of them there.

This one's definitely starting to develop a little bit of an aroma.

Want a sniff?

And as you see, there's a whole collection of them here, really.

They often grow in big groups.

Wow. Oh, my God.

That's huge! There's so much that I love about truffles,

but I do like the idea that, through the year, that you get different

varieties of truffle, so you can use them in different ways.

It's the finishing touch, to make a dish perfect.

It's back to Zak's place to scrub the truffles clean.

Thanks.

What inspired you to make the jump into truffle hunting?

Really just kind of fell into it, because

I started hunting the truffles purely for the love of doing it,

-and I loved hunting them, I loved eating them.

-Mmm, yeah.

And so chefs started to ask me if they could buy them,

so it really became a very natural progression

to start a proper business.

Well, from the taste I've had of truffle hunting today I can

understand where you, kind of, get the thrill and the passion of...

Yeah, it's so exciting, and

there's nothing else I'd rather be doing, really.

The big trouble now is keeping up with demand.

It's little wonder. For chefs like Anna,

truffles can make all the difference to the flavour of a dish.

And that's reflected in the price of autumn truffles.

250g of these pearls of the

earth will cost you around £200 in the shops.

But really the shape and the size and everything is

completely irrelevant, compared to the aroma.

Much better to have an ugly truffle or a tiny truffle, or anything,

-that smells amazing.

-Yeah.

-They're beautiful in the right dishes.

Truffles are such a delicious treat, aren't they?

-They are.

-They add richness and warmth

as well as flavour, don't they?

-They do.

-Now, are you going to put truffles in the next dish?

-I am.

-What are you going to do?

-I'm going to do it with roast pheasant.

This is a dish that was served at perhaps

the most lavish banquet ever...

-Really?

-..given by the Prince Regent for the Grand Duke Nicholas

in January 1817.

-Tell you more about it in a minute. How do you start?

-Right.

Whenever you're using truffle, do not slice it too thick.

Cos when it's nice and thin, what happens is it cooks,

and that's where you're going to get most of its flavour.

If it's too thick, you don't get... It's incredible, isn't it?

Hitting you right in the nose!

-So, what I've got here...

-It's also very expensive, so...

-Very expensive.

-Might as well get the most out of it.

That's the main reason.

So, what we've got here are pheasants on the crown.

So, pheasant can become very dry very quickly.

If you're roasting it on the bone,

you've got the best possible chance of keeping it lovely and moist.

So, we're just going to take our bird like so.

-Yeah.

-Just pull the skin back...

-Pull its jacket up.

-Pull its jacket up.

That's right. OK. Now, I'm just going to take some of this truffle,

and we're going to poke it underneath.

-Under the skin.

-Fold that back down...

-Yeah.

..and that is just packed full of truffle underneath that breast.

Like so. And we do the same with the other one.

Now, over there I've got a nice, thick,

-heavy-bottomed pan, like a proper casserole pan.

-Mmm-hmm.

The best way, I feel, to cook this is... We want to roast it on the

outside, course we do, want that lovely roast pheasant flavour.

But then we want to, for me, poach

-it, almost, like, steam it.

-Mmm.

-OK? So we're just going to season.

-Keep it moist.

-Absolutely.

Season it all over.

So, here as well, Michael,

I've just got some cabbage which I've just softened down in a

little bit of butter and some seasoning.

-Just nice and simple.

-It's a really rich, winter meal, isn't it?

It is, and this will all come into play later.

So, we're getting our oil here.

We want it nice and hot, so when we add our pheasants into the pan

we've got that sizzle straight away,

-so that it's caramelising straight away.

-OK.

-Wahey!

-There we go. OK?

Yeah.

-In, like so.

-Mmm-hmm.

-All right?

Now, what I've done with the legs and the wings, I've taken them off,

I've roasted them, and then with some of the carcass, as well, I've

basically roasted that off and put it into chicken stock,

so then we've turned our chicken stock into pheasant stock...

It's a really major undertaking, this, isn't it?

-A really big dish.

-Yeah.

-But, and this is the amazing thing,

you know I said it was the most lavish banquet ever held

-or might have been?

-Yes.

Here we are. Here's the menu, look.

Look how many dishes there are.

Dozens and dozens and dozens of them.

And you think THAT'S a lot?

It's only half of it.

-Cos there's all those!

-Oh, my God.

-MICHAEL LAUGHS

-There's all those as well.

-It's unbelievable.

This is a banquet with more than

120 different dishes.

The royal chef at the time, who did

the banquet, was Marie-Antoine Careme, you've heard of Careme?

Yes, I have, yeah.

Very famous royal chef.

-OK. Now what?

-We're just continually roasting over that.

I want to get the colour all over.

So while that's happening we're just going to chop some chives.

-Yeah.

-OK?

-You know, these dishes

weren't the only extravagant thing there.

They actually had a pastry model of the Royal Pavilion of Brighton

in the centre of the table,

and they had a kind of model,

a mock-up of a Turkish mosque

made out of marzipan

that was four feet high in the centre of the table, as well.

Four feet high?! Out of marzipan?

-Out of marzipan.

-Incredible.

Extravagant or what?

-Now, look at that.

-Wow.

OK? Roasted pheasant.

-Right.

-Gosh.

-Next...

Same pan, all that lovely flavour.

Let's just add in a little bit of butter.

OK?

-Pancetta.

-Yeah.

-OK?

Basically, smoked, cured bacon.

All right? We want to work quickly here, Michael.

-OK? So we want that heat back up...

-You're moving fast.

We're moving fast. Right.

We've got carrot, onion and celery.

-In, like so.

-All very finely diced.

All very finely diced.

A bay leaf.

Just tear it a little bit, let the oils come out.

Just one, OK? Bay leaf's strong.

Some thyme. Gorgeous stuff.

Mmm! You're motoring now, Paul.

We're motoring now.

-White wine.

-Oh, yeah.

A really nice dry white wine.

-Yeah.

-Like that. Just a glug.

-Now, over here, that wonderful stock that I told you about.

-Yeah.

-OK?

-The wings and the legs, they've done their job, OK?

-Yeah.

Now we just need that wonderful infused liquor.

Gosh, that looks rich.

That's marvellous.

Next, give it a good stir.

Now we go back to our wonderful pheasants.

Pop those in the pot like so.

Now, stand them up as well, Michael.

So the breast is on top?

-The breast meat is on top?

-Yeah. The breast meat is on top.

And now, the lid will go on like that.

OK? That's going to go in the oven, if you could pop it in there for me.

-Yeah.

-And do you know what?

It's going to be a lot less than you think.

-12 to 15 minutes.

-Really? Only 12 to 15 minutes?

Really. Because remember it's a breast.

It's not a shin of beef or a shoulder of lamb.

-It's something so delicate.

-Yeah.

But now, for me, that is the best way to cook pheasant.

-But just 12 minutes? Gosh.

-Just 12 minutes. 12, 15 minutes.

-OK?

-What sort of temperature?

-170 degrees.

-Oh, right. So quite a low heat as well.

-Yeah.

-You OK with that, do you need a hand?

-No, no, I'm fine.

-OK.

And just on the side, Michael, there's another one resting.

OK. Thanks.

These dishes are amazing. They're so heavy!

-Want me to pop it on here?

-That'd be lovely. Thank you very much.

-So, we're just going to lift off the lid.

-Yeah.

-Look at that.

-Oh, yeah.

Out come our pheasants.

Gosh, they look good.

And we're just going to let them

rest on this platter over here.

Right, so in here I've got some cabbage,

which has been softened down in the butter, like I said earlier,

and I'm just now going to add some mashed potato to it.

I've just seasoned it, Michael,

with some sea salt and some crushed black pepper,

-so we're just going to...

-And you're mixing that all together,

-you're not serving it separately?

-No.

Now here in my sauce I'm just going to add a little touch of cream.

Not much, just a little touch of cream, like so.

-One more mix around.

-You didn't put much in, though, did you?

No, I didn't, no. So, I've got a little separate pan here.

I'm going to take some of our chives and I'm going to have some of the

-chives for the sauce, OK?

-Yeah.

-Like so.

And we're going to have some of the chives to go through the mashed

potato and cabbage, and we're almost there.

God, it smells so good.

Right. Over here, Michael,

as I scoop up, I want the bacon and the vegetables.

-Right.

-OK.

-That, ready to go.

-OK.

-Absolutely beautiful.

Mashed potato.

So, we're just going to serve up, Michael, like so.

-Let me just put this out of the way. There we go.

-Now...

-It all looks so good.

-Does, doesn't it?

-Right.

-Where are you going to put the...

-Ready?

I'm always interested in where you put the sauce.

-All over.

-You put it all over the top?

Over the mashed potato, everywhere, around, like so.

Pheasant skin isn't particularly crispy, so don't worry about that.

It's all about flavour.

-Wow.

-Now, the last thing to go over the top of this is more of that.

-A bit more truffle.

-Beautiful truffle.

-Ready?

-Mmm, mmm!

Oh, it does look good, doesn't it?

Roast Pheasant With Truffles.

Roast Pheasant With Truffles, or as Marie-Antoine Careme described it,

"Les Faisan Truffe A La Perigueux."

PAUL LAUGHS

Ooh, there we go.

-Look at that.

-And some truffle.

-Yeah, absolutely.

-And that pheasant should be just beautifully moist.

-Mmm!

Ooh, yeah. It is moist. Mmm!

Wonderful texture, wonderful taste.

And the truffles really intensifying everything.

You know, 120 dishes, but...

..this must have been the highlight.

A luxurious dish from an extravagant

banquet, thrown by an indulgent prince.

A king who knew a thing or two about the high life was Henry VIII,

and 500 years ago one of his royal palaces was the scene of some

very lavish spending.

Leeds Castle in Kent was transformed by Henry into a magnificent

residence for his first wife, Catherine.

Dr Polly Russell went along to find out more.

Henry wanted his Queen, Catherine of Aragon, to feel really at home here,

and he spent a small fortune, and a

number of years between 1517 and

1523, renovating Leeds Castle to

bring it bang up-to-date.

Historian Annie Kemkaran-Smith takes up the story.

Henry VIII spent a lot of money here to improve the castle and

actually turn it into a pleasure

palace more than a defensible castle.

From 1517 through to 1523, we know that the steward here,

Henry Guildford, was given between £200-300 every year to improve

the castle and make it into a palace.

That's somewhere in the region of £100,000 a year in today's money.

He wanted it to be hung with luxurious tapestries.

He wanted there to be feasting and partying here.

There are no records to tell us the detail of all of Henry and

Catherine's stays at Leeds Castle,

but one visit is very well-documented.

We know that there was one particular date

where an extraordinary feast took place. Can you tell me about that?

In 1520, Henry and Catherine and their retinue of over 5,000 people

came here to Leeds Castle and spent one night.

So, travelling with 5,000 people.

I mean, that is completely extraordinary.

I mean, was this typical of his extravagance?

What do we know about him and his relationship to wealth?

Mmm. I think it is typical.

He was used to extravagance.

He was all about display and

pomp and ceremony, so for him,

travelling with over 5,000 people was just par for the course.

The logistics involved in, you know, all those people,

-where are they going to sleep, how do you feed them?

-Mmm.

Do we have any documents that tell us what was actually eaten, and

what was actually prepared here, that amazing night?

Well, we know that the steward here, Henry Guildford, he did have warning

of them coming for their one night of 5,000 people...

-You'd hope so!

-..for a big dinner.

And he got given just over £66 to prepare for it,

which was a large amount of money.

A well-paid labourer at that time

-would have earned about £10 in a year.

-Mmm, mmm-hmm.

So it's effectively the year's

wages of six full-time workers

for one night of partying.

-For one night, one night of partying.

-Oh, that's not bad.

You can only imagine what fun and feasting took place here.

Fortunately for us,

there's a shopping list that gives us an idea of what was on the menu.

There's this ledger from the time,

which gives us the household accounts.

Just the section on fish tell us that a certain

John of Antwerp was paid

for supplying an enormous quantity of fish.

I mean, for example, he provides 9,100 plaice.

-I mean, imagine just the sight of 9,100 plaice.

-Mmm, it's huge, mmm.

Extraordinary. And then down here,

it actually suggests three porpoises.

I mean, that also is extraordinary.

We obviously don't eat porpoise now,

-and nor would most people have eaten porpoise.

-Mmm.

That was really the food of kings.

Deer from the Leeds Castle estates were definitely killed and provided

for this one night.

We also know that the dairy went into overdrive and provided lots of

goods for people to eat during their stay here.

That's really interesting, and

what documents like this tell us is

how extraordinary and opulent and

excessive this event was,

and this feasting was.

But that was only the warm up to the main event.

The gathering was a stop off en route to a rendezvous near Calais

with the French king, Francis I,

in a meeting which has come to be known

as the Field of the Cloth of Gold.

This is the 5,000 descending upon Calais.

That this meeting is called the Field of the Cloth of Gold is

evidence that it must have been extraordinary as a spectacle of all

the gold cloth, the gilt. I mean,

these two renaissance princes were...

They were determined to establish

-who was the most...

-Absolutely.

-..powerful, handsome.

The whole meeting, I think,

was about outdoing one another in the friendliest of ways,

so, instead of going to war with each other,

they've decided to have this great big event where they meet,

they joust with each other,

they even wrestle with each other at some point,

and Francis actually overthrows Henry,

which I'm sure didn't go down that well.

But the whole thing on both kings'

parts was to outshine the other,

and Henry did his part by building

massive tents made out of cloth of

gold that shimmered in the sunlight,

and had massive feasting

and dancing and banqueting and jousting.

It's the ultimate lads' night out, isn't it?

-It really is.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

The 29-year-old Henry's extraordinary lads' night out had

lasting repercussions for his reign.

We know that when he went out to France to meet Francis I for the

Field of the Cloth of Gold meeting,

the money that he spent on everything

out there pretty much bankrupted England.

When it came to extravagance,

Henry VIII was in a league of his own - wine,

food, entertainment - that man could throw a party.

I just wish that I'd been there!

Ah, started without me.

-What are you doing?

-I've got some beautiful caramelised lamb's liver.

-Terrific.

-Gorgeous cabbage. Look how beautiful, deep and green that is.

Cooked in butter, some salt, some pepper.

I'm just going to chop up this beautiful lamb's liver and fold

-it through the cabbage.

-Where's my fork?

And then over on the plate there

I've got some stunning, beautifully

-cooked, fluffy rice.

-Oh, it looks nice.

Absolutely. Does, doesn't it? Yeah.

-Absolutely delicious.

-Where's my fork?

-Uh-uh! No, it's not for you.

-What?

-This is for the corgis.

BOTH LAUGH

-Are you serious?

-I'm serious.

-Is this what...

-This is what the corgis...

-..the royal corgis get?

-Royal corgis eat, yeah.

-Look at that.

-God, the royals certainly have the best of

everything, and that goes for the corgis, does it?

They do, this is... Yeah. So keep your hands off.

And then, just on top, I'm just

going to shave some beautiful truffle.

You know, she's had corgis all her life.

More than 80 years, you know?

The first one her father King George VI brought - Dookie, his

name was - in 1933, and she's had 30 corgis since then.

The latest one is called Whisper.

-Whisper?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Right, OK.

It used to be owned by the groundsman at

Sandringham, up in Norfolk.

He died, unfortunately, and she's adopted Whisper.

She loves horses, as well.

-Had a pony when she was four.

-Right, OK.

And of course, famously, has all those racehorses.

2,000 winners, she had.

-2,000 winners?!

-Yeah, yeah.

I wonder what she feeds them!

Yes. Indeed, indeed.

-The very best oats with a sauce vinaigrette?

-Maybe.

-Or a raspberry coulis, do you think?

-Some sliced truffle.

MICHAEL LAUGHS

She is a dedicated fan of horse racing,

and the horsiest event of the year is Royal Ascot -

one of the most high profile events in the social calendar.

We know what the Queen's animals eat,

but what about royal guests at Ascot?

Someone who's in the know is Michelin-starred chef

Michael Caines.

In 2015, he cooked for 180 people at

the Royal Enclosure at Ascot.

Today, I'm making a warm salad of lobster with a curry mayonnaise and

a vinaigrette of mango and cardamom.

So, to start with, we're going to make the vinaigrette.

I'm using green cardamom, which is great, but just to break up the

shells, I'm going to put them in a pestle and mortar

so that we get the flavour of the seeds coming out.

So, I chose this recipe for Royal Ascot

cos it really does champion the best of British, using lobsters,

a beautiful product, but also,

a little bit of a nod to the Commonwealth,

using the spices from India as inspiration for this dish.

We're going to add the spice to this stock suet,

which is equal amounts of sugar and water brought up to the boil,

and we're just going to

let that cook out just to extract all of that wonderful flavour.

Michael then adds the juice of a lime and its zest.

This will make a "gastrique" - a sweet and sour sauce.

The day at Ascot, it's incredible.

Really, it's a week of celebration,

so we were cooking for 180 covers

every day in the top restaurant,

and of course, when the Queen arrived,

we also had to send food down for her party as well, and obviously

the sense of royalty and the royal occasion is something which is not

lost on you when you're cooking.

While the sauce reduces,

Michael makes a start on the salad.

He's using ratte potatoes, a small

variety that's packed with flavour.

We're going to cook them simply,

using some garlic and lots of thyme

and bay leaves, and then just water, just to cover.

As the potatoes cook, Michael prepares the mango for the salad.

There's always pressure in the kitchen, but in particular,

Royal Ascot, 180 covers,

this particular dish,

we need to execute it perfectly every time.

There's so much pressure. But at the same time, so enjoyable.

So, that's the mango ready. Now we're ready for potatoes.

These are cooked. So we're going to strain them off using a colander.

And once they're cooled down, we'll peel them and dice them.

To prevent the reduced gastrique from crystallising,

Michael adds glucose.

It's then served and combined with the mango puree

to make the vinaigrette.

Lid on.

Let's get that blending.

Now, gradually, add the oil.

Little bit of seasoning, salt and pepper.

And there we have

our mango vinaigrette, and that's ready.

After steaming for eight minutes, the lobster is ready.

We must have cracked about 500

lobsters for the week, so massive job.

All the lobsters came from Brixham, Devon.

So all using British produce.

And I've got some I've prepared already for the actual presentation,

so I'm just going to use this lobster to dice.

Lobster meat is lovely and sweet and it'll go extremely well with the

vinaigrette and, of course, the

curry mayonnaise, which I'll be making next.

For that, I'm going to be using vegetable oil and we're going to

heat that with a madras curry powder.

The curry sauce is added to the mix

of mayonnaise and Greek yoghurt.

You can add as little or as much as you like.

But the main thing to remember is not to overpower those delicate

flavours of the lobster.

And then we're going to add a squeeze of lime juice...

..and an additional pinch of cardamom spice.

OK, so now we're ready for the potato salad.

So, you can imagine being at this restaurant,

right at the top of the main grandstand

overlooking the racecourse, with thousands

of people out enjoying the racing.

And, of course, the procession of the royal horses coming with the

Queen on the carriage, but it was such an amazing occasion.

The salad's different elements are

now ready to be brought together.

So, we're going to start off with the mango.

And then our potato.

And, finally, the lobster.

To this, we're going to add our finely-chopped mint, and now

we're going to mix that with our curry mayonnaise that we made.

All that remains is to warm the lobster through.

So, we're going to heat that through the oven for about

two, three minutes at 180 degrees.

So, while that's in the oven heating up, we can start to dress our dish.

And finally, it's time to add those

all-important and elegant finishing touches.

And now for a little bit of caviar.

Obviously, for something like Royal Ascot,

we're using all of the finest ingredients.

So, there we have it. Warm salad of lobster with curried

mayonnaise and a vinaigrette of

mango and cardamom.

A wonderful dish, and what a great day to remember.

Every royal banquet, Paul, needs a show-stopper.

It's a big ask, but you're not going

-to fall at this hurdle, are you?

-Oh...

-Have you got a show-stopper?

-I'll never let you down, Michael.

-OK.

Yes, I have a Marchpane Rose.

-Marchpane Rose?

-Yes.

-What's Marchpane?

A very, very early version of marzipan.

What they would do is they would bake it, so it goes actually quite

hard, almost like a biscuit.

And that's what we're going to do right now.

And this Marchpane Rose was a centrepiece of one of the most

extraordinary royal banquets, given

-for Elizabeth I in 1575.

-Right, OK.

-So let's get on with it.

-Yes.

-What do you do first?

-Icing sugar.

-Into this bowl.

-Mmm-hmm.

-Ground almonds.

-Mmm-hmm.

Goes in like so.

And then if you could just drizzle in some of this rose water for me?

-Rose water?

-Yeah.

-OK.

-OK.

It's infused and distilled, isn't it?

Infused and distilled, that's it.

-You can almost smell it.

-You can.

-It's almost like a perfume.

-It is, yeah.

-OK. Add it in.

-OK, slowly?

-Slowly.

That's it, and I'm just going to mix until I basically form a dough.

This banquet, held in Elizabeth's honour, was the most sumptuous,

expensive affair, particularly with how much

sugar was used - and, remember,

in the 16th century, sugar was incredibly expensive.

This would have been one of 300 sweet dishes at the banquet.

-300?

-300, including sugar sculptures and everything.

For loads and loads of people,

because Elizabeth was up visiting Kenilworth with a whole entourage,

and they went up there for three whole weeks,

and this was the banquet at the end of it.

-Right, that's going to go...

-It's a kind of snowball, isn't it?

It is, isn't it? So, we're just going

-to get that bowl out of our way.

-Yeah.

-What next?

-And now we're going to move on to

rolling it between two sheets.

-Now, like I said...

-This is fairly simple so far.

-Very simple.

-This is not stretching you too much.

In fact, the whole recipe, to be

-fair, is actually very, very simple.

-Mmm-hmm.

Now, just push it down like that.

-Then we're going to take a rolling pin...

-Yeah.

..and just roll it, and what we want to do, Michael, is,

we want to keep a circle...

..and with, you know, like with marzipan now,

where you, kind of, will leave it sort of soft and use it as, kind of,

cake decorating, and some of the things you can make out of marzipan

-are incredible.

-I think much of that must have happened at this banquet,

because a really good story behind it,

cos she was up at Kenilworth with her whole entourage as guests

of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester...

-Right.

-..who, of course, everybody thought was her lover at the time,

and he rather hoped he was going to be able to marry her.

So, she was there for three weeks, whole entourage,

he laid on banquets,

he laid on everything...

-Right.

-..because he thought he was going to marry the Queen of England,

and he spent so much money on it that he almost bankrupted himself

for the rest of his life for those three weeks, and particularly this

particular banquet, for what it cost him.

-That's incredible.

-It is, isn't it?

I'll put that... That will then go into the fridge just to set up.

-Yeah.

-Take that top piece of parchment paper off into the oven,

150 for about 20 minutes.

OK? So, baked like a biscuit.

OK.

So, you get this.

-There we go.

-OK?

-Oh, yeah.

So, now, in here,

we've got icing sugar which we're just going to whisk. Again,

if you could help me out again.

-If you start pouring water into there.

-Yeah.

-And we're just going to...

-This is ordinary water?

This is ordinary water.

We're going to make fondant icing.

OK, swap that one out, and we're

just going to add a little bit of rose water.

OK, just for a bit of flavour?

Just to keep the... Yeah, just a touch. Just a touch. OK.

-Rose water.

-That's enough.

I bet she liked rose water, because the reason she used to go on tour,

like lots of medieval and late medieval monarchs would go on tour

every summer, cos their palaces stank.

-Yeah.

-Palaces in London stank and there was always the threat of

plague, of course, so they used to go on tour during the summer and

their palaces were all cleaned and fumigated and the cesspits cleaned

-out and everything, so they smelt all right.

-Oh!

Well, you know, she had the rose water and those pomanders...

-Yes.

-..they could stick under their nose.

-What, orange with cloves?

An orange with cloves in it that

she can walk around so she doesn't have to smell all these things.

I think medieval and Tudor England must have smelt rather bad.

A very smelly time, yeah.

Now, we're just going to flood this all over this biscuit.

Get it all in there like so.

-That looks good.

-OK?

-Next, we're going to put that one back...

-Mmm-hmm.

..and that, at room temperature, doesn't have to go to the fridge.

After half an hour...

It'll set entirely by itself at room temperature?

-It'll set. Yeah.

-Yeah.

To resemble a bit like your iced bun.

-OK?

-It is like an iced bun.

It is like an iced bun. Right, here we have...

Ooh, those are rather nice, aren't they?

Yes. So, the same mixture.

So, this kind of Marchpane style kind of biscuit, almost.

These are Tudor Roses.

-Tudor Roses, exactly.

-That's the emblem of the Tudor dynasty.

And hearts, by the way.

-And hearts.

-Remember, there's romance here.

-Yes, yeah.

This is Robert Dudley,

spending all his fortune trying to impress Queen Elizabeth,

so she'll marry him.

-Yeah.

-Where does the colour come from?

So the hearts have just been sprayed, so basically,

you can get that in all good kind of cooking shops.

It's just a gold spray.

And then, the Tudor Roses,

we've just painted with red food dye and all we're going to do is put

a rose, followed by a heart,

followed by a rose, all the way around.

It's a bit of a hint, isn't it, to Queen Elizabeth?

Yeah, it is. It is. It is.

I think he was a very, very thoughtful man.

He was. Not a very lucky man in this case, though, was he?

-No.

-That looks really nice.

-It does, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

And that, Michael, is my Marchpane Rose.

-How are we going to attack it?

-Right.

I'm going to cut you a nice wedge.

-Yeah. A segment.

-Yes.

Actually, it doesn't feel as kind of...

Biscuit-y? Chunky?

Yeah, as, sort of, chunky.

I was expecting it to be a bit more crunchier as you go in, but

it's actually very much like marzipan, and I'll just give you a

little bit of rose here as well.

-Ooh, yeah. I like a bit of Tudor Rose.

-Yeah.

-There we go.

-That looks good.

-Go for it.

It's quite a bit to get in your mouth at one go, you know?

Very marzipan texture, isn't it?

The rose petal comes across a lot.

It's a marzipan-ish, without being marzipan.

It's nice and sweet, which is what

-the Tudors wanted, wasn't it?

-Yeah.

-The sweetness.

-I'm surprised she didn't marry him after that.

-I am, as well.

All that work and effort.

Funny, isn't it? To think that we think of Elizabeth with her

blackened teeth and bad breath and all that kind of stuff as,

you know, horrible.

But, actually, she was the height of fashion.

Having black teeth in Tudor times was a sign you were wealthy,

because only the wealthy could afford sugar.

So some of them even painted their teeth black.

Amazing how it all changes.

1575, actually, a really good dish.

Well done.

Join us next time for more Royal Recipes.