I
n 1805 the Marquis of Buckingham held a terrible
dinner. His crime? All the dishes were tepid. One
of his guests declared the meal “the worst I ever
saw”. So how is it that so many people will tell you food
was always served cold and nobody seemed to mind?
Food history is full of what I call ‘everyone
knowsisms’. They are so-called facts that, when
followed through the intricate web of hearsay, are
founded on very little. We’ve all, I suspect, heard a few
of them: some of us may even be guilty of repeating
them. Rarely do we apply logic and watch them dissolve.
One of the most common everyone-knowsisms isEveryone knows that...
or DO they?
In the past everyone was much shorter in
stature, it was commonplace for cooks to use
more spice than they do now, people drank beer
instead of water and food was habitually served
cold... Yes? Turns out there’s a whole lot more
to history than hearsay would have us believe,
says food historian Annie Gray