Victorian Food Culture
The fearsome beast, the Cockatrice
During the enlightenment the food culture saw the same uprising of the typical enlightenment characteristics. The view towards food became more scientific with the goal to for example to match flavors with each other, known as flavor profiling, and to look at the nutritional value of certain food items. When the enlightenment passed over to the romantic era, so did the food traits. The Victorian food culture has many traits connected to those of romanticism. There was a gradual move away from the complex mix of flavors to a more simple approach where the main ingredient was the star, much like many chefs today see it. There were still complex dishes, just not with the extraordinary cluster of flavors seen during the enlightenment. The meal also became more of an experience, just not a gathering where people ate. It was meant to invoke feelings and spectacular sensations, to the taste buds and the other senses. The rich fancied this most as they often would display intricate cutlery or beautiful china, play beautiful music and laden the room with oriental scents. Those who held dinner parties also liked to surprise their
guests by one way or another, often by presenting a dish that would turn out to be something extremely different for example, one dish could be presented as a frog pie and when the first sliced into it, there was actually living frogs hoping around in it. Cooks with a little more ‘’creativity’’ could even create something really bizarre. One such thing that was believed to be ordered by some nobleman during the Victorian era was a Cockatrice. Now, a cockatrice is essentially a two legged dragon with a rooster’s head. This beast existed only in myth so the cooks had to use their culinary minds. What they did was that they sew together different animals parts to form this legendary beast. When Heston Blumenthal made his version of the dish, the beast even breathed fire!
What also inspired a lot of the cooks were the books written during that era, for instance Alice in Wonderland. Heston also used this as inspiration for his feast. He made gold watches out of stock, like the one the mad hatter has. As the book is believed to be one huge drug trip, Heston also wanted to create some sense of drug trip. He used helium gas to alter the guest’s voices! This feast of his is absolutely the quintessential of the Victorian dining experience.
guests by one way or another, often by presenting a dish that would turn out to be something extremely different for example, one dish could be presented as a frog pie and when the first sliced into it, there was actually living frogs hoping around in it. Cooks with a little more ‘’creativity’’ could even create something really bizarre. One such thing that was believed to be ordered by some nobleman during the Victorian era was a Cockatrice. Now, a cockatrice is essentially a two legged dragon with a rooster’s head. This beast existed only in myth so the cooks had to use their culinary minds. What they did was that they sew together different animals parts to form this legendary beast. When Heston Blumenthal made his version of the dish, the beast even breathed fire!
What also inspired a lot of the cooks were the books written during that era, for instance Alice in Wonderland. Heston also used this as inspiration for his feast. He made gold watches out of stock, like the one the mad hatter has. As the book is believed to be one huge drug trip, Heston also wanted to create some sense of drug trip. He used helium gas to alter the guest’s voices! This feast of his is absolutely the quintessential of the Victorian dining experience.