Another interesting-looking dinner evening coming up on Saturday, May 14th, courtesy of Spike Island and Katie and Kim, who run a pop-up restaurant at their home in Horfield. I’ve now had more details of the evening, see below for more information…
Pre-colonial Dinner and Exhibition Tour
Saturday 14 May, 7pm
Spike Island, 133 Cumberland Road, Bristol BS1 6UX
Artist Marjolijn Dijkman, whose work investigates the ways in which ideas, information and objects circulate across time and space, presents a special three course dinner as part of a series of events running alongside her current Spike Island exhibition Theatrum Orbis Terrarum.
The evening’s menu consists only of foods that would have been available in Britain prior to colonisation, prepared by artist chefs Katie and Kim. Many of our most common ingredients were introduced to this country from the British colonies from the late sixteenth century, including tea, chocolate, tomatoes and even potatoes. This meal imagines a time before this influx of flavours from around the world merged with our native foods.
The evening’s menu includes:
Starter of creamy roast fennel soup
Main course of rich pheasant stew served in bread with a carrot and parsnip gratin
Dessert of poached pears with honeycomb ice cream
There is also an opportunity to see the exhibition, Dijkman’s first major solo show in the UK, with a tour led by Spike Island’s director Helen Legg. This event is part of the national Museums at Night initiative.
£25 per person (drinks not included). Booking is essential: please ring 0117 929 2266 for tickets.
What an exciting idea, but what a disappointing menu. Florence fennel, (the bulb type, which presumably is being used) was developed in Italy in the 17th century. Pheasants are long established but not native to Britain, and also 4 months out of season, so I guess these poor birds have been languishing in the freezer ever since. Similarly, we're at the wrong end of the year for carrots and parsnips, there are lots of pre colonial veg around at the moment, besides which, carrots that we'd recognise today weren't all too common in the pre colonial era. Pears at least have a longish history in Britain, but ice creams didn't arrive at all until the late 17th century, and were not popular until well into the 18th century. This just seems to be a random set of foods without any potatoes!