All the King's Cooks : The Tudor Kitchens of King Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace [Hardcover]

Peter Brears (Author), Brears (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1999

Highlighting the world’s first professional kitchen, this volume showcases the massive galleys at Hampton Court Palace. Illustrating how kitchens originally built to supply the entire household of King Henry VIII were run, this guide dispells many of the misconceptions about the table manners, quality of cooking, and serving of meals in Tudor England. Authentic recipes—adapted for modern kitchens—from the period are featured, including Chicken Farced, Smothered Rabbit, and White Leach. Accentuated with striking visuals, this history revives the sights, sounds, and smells of the Tudor kitchen while conveying the daily life of the era’s rich and poor.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A fascinating, detailed account of how the massive kitchens built at Hampton Court were operated. . . . An intelligent yet accessible look into a rarely explored part of the Tudor world. . . . A must-have for Tudor aficionados." —Historical Novels Review (November 2011)

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Peter Brears is the author of Cooking and Dining in Medieval England, The Country House Kitchen 1650–1900, and Stuart Cookery. He is an internationally acclaimed expert on food history as well as a museum and historic-house consultant. He participated in the restoration of Hampton Court Palace kitchens and holds cookery demonstrations there to show how Henry VIII’s meals were prepared.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 191 pages
• Publisher: Souvenir (November 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0285635336
• ISBN-13: 978-0285635333
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #979,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A combination cookbook and industrial history, February 27, 2002

By 

Gary R. Halstead (Ashburn, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All the King's Cooks : The Tudor Kitchens of King Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace (Hardcover)

Peter Brears intersperses a thorough examination of Henry VIII's kitchens at Hampton Court with recipes drawn from period sources.

The palace kitchens at Hampton Court were a large-scale industrial enterprise that fed 600-1200 people every day - everyone from the lowliest servant to the King himself. The author does a grand job of describing how the system procured, stored, and prepared immense amounts of raw materials each day.

Interspersed with the description are recipes drawn from contemporary sources that are similiar to what might have been served at the palace. The author also covers Tudor table manners, etiquette, and the ceremony involved in feeding the monarch.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have reference on Tudor-era eating and palace kitchen organization, May 26, 2011

By 

Whitt Patrick Pond "Whitt" (Cambridge, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All the King's Cooks : The Tudor Kitchens of King Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace (Hardcover)

Peter Brears' All the King's Cooks: The Tudor Kitchens of King Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace is a fascinating read and an absolute must-have reference for anyone interested in Tudor-era foods and eating and/or in royal palace kitchen organization. The level of detail is astonishing and Brears writes with an intimacy of understanding that comes from both his background as a food historian and from his practical hands-on experience conducting cooking demonstrations in the actual preserved kitchens at Hampton Court Palace.

Brears has also included an astonishing number of period and current-day illustrations that are invaluable in understanding how the kitchens were laid out, what they looked like, how the people who worked in them dressed, what their tools and utensils looked like, what table settings looked like, and what some of the food looked like once it had been prepared.

Highly, highly recommended for anyone with an interest in historical cooking, dining routines and etiquette, and in how royal kitchens were organized to fulfill their vital functions.