Picture the scene: a cosy but grand rural retreat. A long mahogany table is dressed for Christmas with evergreen foliage. Flickering flames in a huge stone fireplace reflect off crystal chandeliers, gold candelabras, and the jewelled tiaras of ladies sitting down to dine. A parade of footmen arrives carrying 21 different dishes – sweet and savoury – which they carefully place along the length of the table.
Thanks to a number of menu books from the time – kept by the kitchens at Kew Palace to monitor the royal household’s spending – we know precisely what dishes the Kew cooks created to feed not just the royal family, but every member of this household.
These wonderful books form the basis of a study by myself and historians Rachel Rich, Adam Crymble and Lisa Smith that tracks every meal served at Kew Palace, occasional home and rural retreat of George III and his family, from 1788 to 1801. During this period, the kitchens at Kew served 22,655 dishes to more than 50 different groups of diners, each recorded in detail by the clerks of the kitchen.
