When we visited Bishopsgate Mr Bradshaw drew our attention to The London Tavern. This restaurant also offered banqueting facilities for up to 2,500 people – it must have been nightmarish to work there!
John Farley was the Head Chef at The London Tavern, and produced his cookery book, The London Art of Cookery, in 1783. (You can read online at the University of California Digital Library or it is available on Google as an ebook.) I like to have an actual book in which I can make little notes… He apparently lifted his recipes from Hannah Glasse, without acknowledging his source.
Anyway, I digress.
I feel that, in order to better understand the past, I need to dip into some of these old recipe books. There are several recipes which sound very nice: Common Peas Soup, Pheasant with Celery Sauce, Chicken Fricassee, Sauce Robert with Steak, Beef Tremblanque, Sweet Carrot Fritters (we all eat Carrot Cake so why not fritters?), and Hot Chocolate Tart.
Delia Smith cooks Pheasant with Celery and it looks good… So does this…
To be more truthful, I just want to try some new ideas and write about them!
I would love to hear from you!