Shakespeare’s Kitchen: Peacocks and Pageantry

Join Food Historian and author Francine Segan for this virtual look back a dining in the days of Shakespeare!

The feasts of Shakespeare’s day were fanciful daylong events filled with  great food, wine, and entertainments. Dinner guests were treated to  concoctions like fire-breathing roast peacock, enormous savory pies with  claws poking through the crust; and dinner rolls shaped like deer filled with spiced wine “blood.” Discover the fascinating festivities of Shakespeare’s time in this  hilarious presentation on the fanciful foods, intriguing table manners,  and unusual dining customs of the Elizabethan era. Learn the incredible  reasons the Elizabethans clinked glasses to make a toast and why, in fact, it was called a “toast.” Learn why gentlemen  and ladies refused to eat with forks and why “4 and 20 blackbirds”  really were served in a pie! Sprinkled throughout the lecture are samples of the bawdy jokes, puns, and riddles told between courses back then.

Email instructions to access the lecture via Zoom will be sent by email.