The country’s amateur pastry chefs are called upon to create a brand new pudding in honor of the sovereign’s seventy-year reign. The winner of the competition will be known in March, and his creation will take center stage on tables across the country during the festivities organized for the occasion from June 2 to 5.
“This is the challenge of a lifetime for amateur pastry chefs”, enthusiastically The Daily Telegraph. Brits aged eight and over are invited, as of Monday, January 10, to develop a dessert recipe “Fit for the queen”. This Platinum Pudding will then be served across the kingdom during street parties scheduled for June 2-5 to mark the 70th anniversary of Elizabeth’s accession to the throne. II – a first in the history of the British monarchy. “A four-day weekend was decreed on this occasion”, specifies the conservative newspaper.
“All types of desserts are accepted, indicated The Times. A first selection made by chefs, the famous food critic Mary Berry, historians and pastry chefs will take place on February 4. Five finalists will then have to make their creation in front of the judges in March ” in a department store in central London. “Keep it simple”, advises Mark Flanagan, chef at Buckingham Palace and member of the jury, in the columns of the daily newspaper of the capital. “Don’t try to include too many different textures, just let the flavors sing.”
Culinary history linked to the monarchy
Once “Shared with the nation”, the recipe might quickly enter the pantheon of British gastronomy. “Many of the dishes currently popular in the United Kingdom have a link with the monarchy”, relief The Spectator.
The Victoria Sponge, a variation of the sponge cake, “Was baptized in honor of the monarch” from XIXe century, underlines the weekly. Coronation Chicken, pieces of cold chicken wrapped in a slightly spicy sauce, “The date of the coronation of E.lisabeth II, in 1953 “.
But for sixty-nine years, no other sovereign dish has enriched the cookbooks. “An initiative called ‘Cook for the Queen’, launched in British schools in 2012, for the Diamond Jubilee, had given nothing”, note The Daily Telegraph.
Ten years later, the quest for the ultimate royal dessert, “Whether it comes from an old family recipe, the adaptation of a classic or the fruit of the imagination”, is thrown.