The Menus That Made History

From turkey with all the trimmings to chocolate-biscuit cake, the dishes served at grand occasions aren’t always as high-faluting as you might expect

- Emma Hughes

COOKING for a crowd—as anyone who has driven to Waitrose in a pre-dinner-party panic and grabbed every focaccia in the bakery section knows—is stressful. Spare a thought then, for the chefs whose job it is to create the menus for events of national importance. Part magician, part town planner, the person tasked with feeding the guests at a royal wedding or anniversary bash has to ensure that each dish stands out, but that the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts—a statement of intent and a triumphant exercise in flag-waving.

Menus, you see, can be a very effective way of delivering messages. When, for instance, the one from the dinner given by Edward VIII for the Prime Minister and his advisers the night before he abdicated came to light, what really stood out was the main course. Was Mousse de Sole Victoria—named after the country’s longest-reigning monarch—a deliberate choice or a Freudian slip?

Foods go in and out of fashion, but some have always been a no-go in toptier catering. Bivalves are banned (nobody wants to topple a head of state with a dodgy oyster), as are nuts and anything liable to make a mess of a dress shirt, such as pasta. Sandwiches, even in canapé form, are deadly—who can forget Ed Miliband’s run-in with a bacon butty in 2014?

There have been menus for as long as there have been dinners, but the first person to really harness their potential for image enhancement was Queen Victoria. Having created Christmas as we know it by popularising the trees and trimmings Prince Albert brought over from Germany, she knew that what was served at her table would be scrutinised not just by her guests, but by the public.