Oriel Librarian Celebrates Mrs Beeton with ‘A Taste of Spring’ at Guildhall Library
Date:
23 Apr 2015
College Librarian Marjory Szurko recently laid on an ‘edible exhibition’ for a special event at London’s Guildhall Library
celebrating famous 19th century English food writer Mrs Beeton. The
event was part of the Guildhall Library’s exhibition, Celebrity Cooks:
Mrs Beeton and her Contemporaries, which commemorated the 150th
anniversary of Mrs Beeton’s death.
Marjory
has a keen interest in historical recipes. She has hosted six Edible
Exhibitions already at Oriel, and has been known to bake cakes to tie in
with events within College, such as the recent chapel re-opening.
Although Oriel only boasts one small recipe book bequeathed by
Orielensis Stephen Furness, which inspired Marjory to create the Edible
Exhibitions in the first place, she takes her recipes from many sources,
such as those published by the Early English Text Society.
For the ‘Taste of Spring’ event, Marjory baked sweet dishes from the 14th-19th centuries,
culminating in a magnificent 19th century style meringue centrepiece in the shape of a
pagoda (photo).
The pagoda paid homage to 19th century chef Alexis Soyer who wrote a recipe for Meringue Pagodatique
à la Chinoise. Marjory’s pagoda was set in a landscape of gingerbread,
marzipan and icing, with a jelly pool and pine nut fish.
For
all the dishes, Marjory illustrated the period they came from and
talked about how they developed throughout the centuries. The event was a
great success, and included at least one Orielensis in the audience!
