Easter Eggstravaganza!

well, not really, but it makes a good enough title!

Better late than never I suppose with the plans for this Easter weekend in the kitchens at Hampton Court....so, what are they??
This weekend will see us starting on work for the next Xmas event...yes, you read that right, beat that supermarkets with your Easter eggs on the shelves on January 1st and Xmas cards in stock after Halloween!
Over the course of the year we will be playing with a number of the ideas that we want to try out to see how we can improve on the Xmas event from last year but without the pressure of the actual event and a "must not fail" situation. This weekend....a 2 course meal!

Fairly similar to the last Xmas gig, the bulk of the dishes will be roast and the menu will be the same each day (though I've packed the book away ready for tomorrow so can't tell you the details right now...doh!!...roast beef, mutton and lamb are there along with chickens on the spit, that much I can recall), with none of the daily variations that we tried at Christmas...boring perhaps, but much more historically accurate.

The "meal" will be served at 4.00 pm for the 1st course and 4.30 pm for the second...I say served, but that would be a bit of artistic licence as what I really mean is "taken out of the kitchen"....Where to?
Our office as it happens, though that's not important as anywhere out of the kitchen is all that really matters. Once it's cooked the food isn't important (other than checking for consistent results, something else we need to work on), the whole point of the work is the cooking portion of the day, sorting the timings, making sure we can get everything finished at the same time; so the dishes will be plated up then removed to simulate the service part of the proceeding. That's not to say that the food will be wasted, far from it, the team will eat it all after hours and leftovers will be frozen as usual for later use...just that you won't get the chance to see that part of the foods journey....sorry.
Hopefully the weekend will show us the best way to run with the expanded menu in the future and that will result in an even better Christmas event at the end of the year....many, many more ideas to try/think through/test out towards that event in order to really up the game from last time.

A short hop after Easter...the next weekend...sees us back in the kitchens again for the Royal Wedding day and then the May Day bank Holiday. The Palace theme for that weekend is love and romance, though how that's going to translate into the kitchens I really can't say....but Dave has been asked to make something suitable out of sugar or marchpane.
Other than that it'll be a fairly "normal" weekend of trying out recipes we've not cooked before from Harly M.S. 5401 so there should be something of interest to keep us all busy...hopefully I'll get a chance to give you some more details once I get the book of plans unpacked for this weekend.

Updates over the events are, as always, intended but mobile signal coverage seems to have decreased massively with my new phone...technology, pffft!!...so you'll have to make do with what you get I'm afraid.

Think that about covers it for now, so have a good Easter weekend and enjoy the unseasonably warm weather....good for visitors (though to be honest hot weather makes for a quiet weekend indoors as everyone is enjoying the gardens outside)....but not so good if you're wearing some lovely woollen clothes....good job some of us have a little more ventilation than planned eh ;0)

TTFN