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Let Them Eat Quiche: A Culinary History of Coronation Food
In conversation with The Independent Professor Rebecca Earle, from the University of Warwick said. "This is a genuine innovation. Historically, members of the public were not urged to celebrate coronations by inventing new dishes, or by recreating the menus of the official banquets. Home cooks hoping to replicate the côtelettes de bécassines à la Souvaroff served at Edward VII’s 1902 coronation would have confronted a complex recipe involving fillets of snipe, pâté, brandy and truffles,” she says.
“The method was later described in royal chef Gabriel Tschumi’s cookbook [Royal Chef: Recollections of life in royal households from Queen Victoria to Queen Mary], but it was unlikely to inspire any but the most intrepid.
“Today’s efforts to encourage us all to join in by baking a coronation quiche reflect the enormous popularity of cooking as a leisure activity, as well as the monarchy’s attempts to repackage themselves for the 21st century.”