food in period piece movies

harpospeaking · Joined: 13 Sep 2005 Posts: 194 Location: San Diego, CA

I just saw Sophia Coppola's Marie Antoinette at a friends' house the other night and I was really amazed at the presentation of food at Versailles during Louis XVI's reign. These dishes were like literal food sculptures. I was wondering how film directors find out about the food and recipes royal chefs used back then. Have these recipes been kept on record for hundreds of years? How do filmmakers consult with experts to present accurate looking meals during these period piece movies?
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Griffin · Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 932 Location: England

Harpo,

For the 18th century, it's not as difficult as it may seem. There are still cookery books from the period around to tell you about the recipe and even the measures. I have an 8th edition of Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy, myself.

Also paintings and other visual representations - prints, drawings and so on give you clues. Literature of the period can also help to some extent.

The rest, I suspect is experimenting until they get it right or get to a nearest equivalent. After all in a movie it just has to look right - it doesn't necessarily have to be right. ...unless somebody's going to have to eat it, and then it has to look right and at least not taste horrible!
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Confusion comes fitted as standard.

madameshawshank · Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 11:51 pm Post subject:

The Age of Innocence!...the table setting...can remember gasping when I saw it on the big screen....stunning
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"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson

Griffin · Joined: 09 Jun 2006 Posts: 932 Location: England

The Royal Pavilion at Brighton (one of my favourite places ever) has a typical menu just inside the kitchen so you can see what the Prince Regent would have had for lunch. It's HUGE!!! No wonder he looked like a barrel in clothes! ... also, no wonder the banqueting hall is so long and wide...!! Not the place to get drunk in tho', all those dragons and the gilt would have really given you the most terrifying hallucinations!!! Shocked

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Confusion comes fitted as standard.

madameshawshank · Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:53 pm Post subject:

dragons and gilt be blowed!....let the bubbles etc flow....wine merriment and song sing I
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"I've never accepted the external appearance of things as the whole truth. The world is much more elaborate than the nerves of our eye can tell us." - James Gleeson