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Hampton Court Palace open royal chocolate kitchen
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Hampton Court Palace open royal chocolate kitchen
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Hampton Court Palace open royal chocolate kitchen
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Hampton Court Palace open royal chocolate kitchen
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Hampton Court Palace open royal chocolate kitchen
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Hampton Court Palace open royal chocolate kitchen
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Hampton Court Palace open royal chocolate kitchen
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Hampton Court Palace open royal chocolate kitchen
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Hampton Court Palace open royal chocolate kitchen
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Hampton Court Palace open royal chocolate kitchen
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Hampton Court Palace open royal chocolate kitchen
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Hampton Court Palace open royal chocolate kitchen
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Hampton Court Palace open royal chocolate kitchen
Britain’s only surviving royal chocolate kitchen has been unwrapped at Hampton Court Palace. Now visitors can enjoy this unique slice of the past. Catherine Whyte tucks in
I feel like Charlie Bucket at the gates of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. But this isn’t Cadbury’s, it’s Hampton Court Palace, and I’m here to get my teeth into a delicious, long-lost slice of Georgian life; a special place that was almost subsumed for ever into the melting pot of time.
Last year, curators at Hampton Court made a startling find. From a forgotten store room, concealed behind iron shelving, emerged the king’s own chocolate kitchen – perfectly preserved right down to the holes for hanging the ladles. It’s where famed chocolate cook Thomas Tosier – the Michel Roux of his day – would have cooked steaming pots of hot chocolate, spiced with oils of aniseed and pepper, before taking them up to the bedchamber of the most important man in the realm: George I.
It is a unique discovery – and a timely one too. For the opening to the public of England’s only surviving Georgian chocolate kitchen coincides with a significant anniversary: 300 years since the Hanoverian accession, when George I came to the throne.
For years, rumours had persisted that each royal palace had its own chocolate kitchen, but proof remained stubbornly elusive. And so it would have remained, had not a tenacious food historian and archaeologist of Historic Royal Palaces – the aptly named Marc Meltonville – been charged with separating fact from fiction.
“Throughout my career, I’ve always been aware of the story,” says Marc, over a coffee in the cafe before we head for the kitchen. “There’s a tiny nook known as Chocolate Court, over in the area we call Fountain Court. But we didn’t know whether the rumours were started by the Victorians after they opened the palace to the public in the 1860s. They were good at putting their own spin on things.”
So, fresh from restoring the Georgian kitchens at Kew Palace, Marc sent an assistant curator to plunder the records at Kew’s National Archives. Sure enough, an inventory came to light that precisely located several kitchens and store rooms, including Tosier’s elusive kitchen. It had been under their noses all the time.
“We had presumed that the room was an empty space, but when the shelving was taken out we were staggered to see that the kitchen was still there: shelves, folding table, charcoal stove, the range with the spit-turning equipment to roast the beans,” says Marc, now in full flow.
And given that the room opposite was ruined by fire in 1986, it is even more of a miracle that the place survived intact.
Coffee over, we walk round Fountain Court – past the ladies toilets which, as Marc now knows, once housed the spice room – and into Tosier’s kitchen. A small, unassuming space, it is a far cry from the heat and clamour of the Tudor kitchens.
“Visitors can now come in here and there’ll be audiovisuals to explain what they’re looking at,” says Marc. “The room opposite will have a replica of the kitchen with a video demo of how Tosier would have prepared the chocolate for his king – usually for breakfast time. It was a habit that came over with the Restoration.”
On high days and holidays, visitors will also be able to watch one of HRP’s food historians actually cook up the chocolate – Georgian style, no Wonka bars in sight – in the duplicate kitchen. Golden tickets are not required.
They can then walk along Fountain Court to Tosier’s Chocolate Room – equivalent to a pass in a modern kitchen – where Thomas would have plated the chocolate up for the king and added his finishing touches. The more striking of the two rooms, it will be dressed with custom-made replicas of silver pots found in the Ashmolean and V&A Museums, alongside all the other paraphernalia and ingredients Thomas would have used.
“By our standards, Tosier was a celebrity chef, not only because of his culinary skills but because he had the ear of the king,” explains Marc. “He had huge influence. Don’t forget that Georgian London was really switched-on, full of investment, banking and opportunity.
“Tea, coffee and chocolate all came to England in the 1650s, but 60 years on, the most exclusive of these was chocolate – and the Tosiers were at the heart of it all.”
Astute in business, Grace Tosier traded on her husband’s association with the king to open a chocolate house in Blackheath. This became the place to be seen in Georgian London: if you weren’t one of the beautiful people, very wealthy or on the guest list, you didn’t get in.
“In the Chocolate Room, we’ve hung a print of her which was published in The Gentleman’s Magazine,” explains Marc. “The article describes her clothes in detail, just like Hello would today. It’s all about aspiration – people wanted to be in her position. When she died, she left £3,000, which was a stunning amount.”
Back in the cafe, meanwhile, Marc has been conjuring the spirit of Mr Tosier – or Mr Wonka – to add heritage flavours to the menu. One is from the earliest ever published chocolate book, while another is a twist on a recipe known as the King’s Chocolate, heavily spiced with aniseed and pepper oils.
Winnowed, pressed and ground to perfection, Hampton Court’s latest project is truly ready for consumption.
