George Washington and Henry VIII
Three hundred years before enslaved cooks, Lucy and Nathan, prepared meals for hundreds of visitors a year at Mount Vernon, the kitchens at Hampton Court were the main stay of royal entertaining. Last week, Marc Meltonville, a “food archaeologist” in the Historic Kitchens of Hampton Court Palace, England gave Mount Vernon staff a fascinating “behind-the-scenes” tour of these Tudor kitchens, which have been the focus of in-depth research examining their usage through time since 1991. The kitchens, some may say like the King, were enormous! Fifty-five rooms once made up the complex, each with a purpose in sourcing, storing, preparing, cooking and serving food for a household of over 600. Today, Marc’s team views the resources of the historic kitchens as a laboratory, and their investigations embrace any and every aspect of social history in that space, which they then interpret through demonstrations to the Palace’s visitors and lucky colleagues in America!
Delving into history should engage all of our senses. There is a ton of great information on the project’s website that will draw your students into learning about history through their senses and their stomachs!
