Country House Breakfast (c.1870)
Hosted by Lord and Lady St Germans
at
Port Eliot, St Germans
Sunday 26th March 2006
Sittings at 10am and 12.30pm
featuring
Local food from over 20 Cornish artisan producers.
Please also join us for the
Slow Food Cornwall `Wild Food Walk’
Saturday 25th March, Port Eliot
10am and 2pm
with Marcus Harrison of the Wild Food School, Lostwithiel (places limited)
Hot on the heels of the success of the inaugural Slow Food Cornwall Brunch at Prideaux Place in Padstow last October, we are pleased to announce the second Brunch, to be held at Port Eliot, St Germans on Mothering Sunday, 26th March (also the start of British Summer time).
Hosted by Lord and Lady St Germans, the Country House Breakfast will celebrate traditional local food in a historic setting and feature over 20 Cornish artisan producers.
The inspiration for the idea of a Country House Breakfast was a small paragraph discovered in an old cookery book, ‘Good Things in England’ (recently republished by Persephone books), which describes a breakfast feast at Port Eliot c.1870:
The Country House Breakfast was described in Good Things in England by Ethel, Lady Raglan; the granddaughter of the Earl of St Germans at that time `I always remember what a great feature was made of the breakfasts at my grandfather's house parties at Port Eliot and of the numerous courses that succeeded each other. There would be a choice of fish, fried eggs, and crisp bacon, a variety of egg dishes, omelets, and sizzling sausages and bacon. During the shooting parties hot game and grilled pheasants always appeared on the breakfast menu but were served of course without any vegetables. On a side table was always to be found a choice of cold viands; delicious home-smoked hams, pressed meats, one of the large raised pies for which Mrs Vaughan (the cook) was justly famous, consisting of cold game and galantine with aspic jelly.
The guests drank either tea of coffee, and there were the invariable accompaniments of home made rolls (piping hot) and stillroom preserves of apple and quince jelly; and always piled bowls of rich Cornish cream. The meal usually finished with a fruit course of grapes or hothouse peaches and nectarines.’
The Slow Food Cornwall Brunch will not include all of the foods described by the book, but it will be a seasonal appropriate representation, served in a buffet style at the table. Food historian, cookery writer, Cornwall resident and Slow Food Cornwall member, Sara Paston-Williams is consulting on the menu to ensure accurate historical representation.
Wild Food Walk, Saturday 26th March – 10am and 2pm
Port Eliot is an area of outstanding beauty and includes sites of special scientific interest. The Slow Food Cornwall Wild Food Walk the day before the brunch is a guided walk with Wild Food expert, Marcus Harrison. We hope to find some treasures and edible pleasures to include in the Brunch menu on the Sunday. Port Eliot also has its own game shoot and we also hope to include seasonal game in the menu.
Editors Notes
Launched less than a year ago in Cornwall, Slow Food is an international organisation whose aim is to protect the pleasures of the table from the homogenisation of modern fast food and life. Through a variety of initiatives it develops gastronomic culture, develops taste education, conserves agricultural bio-diversity, and protects traditional foods at risk of extinction.
The Slow Food Cornwall committee plans to be a thriving and active organisation in Cornwall "Opportunities to be served a traditional English breakfast in a historic Cornish house do not come up very often. Here is one which is not only a great Mothering Sunday indulgence but also a wonderful opportunity to discover and experience superb local produce” explains traditional salt pilchard producer, and Slow Food Cornwall committee member, Nick Howell.
The Cornwall Slow Food Brunch event has been designed to put people more directly in touch with local food in a convivial atmosphere. The first Brunch event was successful in raising funds for Slow Food Cornwall and expanding the membership in Cornwall. Seventy-five people enjoyed the Brunch and each person was provided with an overview of Slow Food in Cornwall, a copy of the menu (featuring the producers, local retailers, suppliers and mail order Cornish products) along with additional background information on each of the producers and their products.
Tickets for the Brunch are £25 members and £30 non-members, only £10 for children from 5 to 12 years old, and free for the under 5’s. You can book tickets or join Slow Food Cornwall by contacting Angie Dodd, Slow Food Cornwall Secretary on 01841 533 066 or email brunch@slowfoodcornwall.com or angie@seriously-good.co.uk |
