Communicating a living record of the scale of production that was necessary to nourish the Royal Court during major reforms of the Monarchy, Church, and Parliament that exist today.

The new multi-sensory presentation of the largest surviving Tudor kitchens in the world, is the culmination of a ten year research and experimentation project, undertaken by Palace Food Archaeologists with the aim to understand the kitchen’s dynamics, and an insight into how they were used during the European Renaissance.

The use of recreated sixteenth century kitchen equipment in the kitchens is key to accurately investigating the overall process of such an enormous Court, and how they were fed in Royal style. Each item has a unique story, sourced from traditional craftsmen, utilising authentic materials and techniques; the use is seeking to explain what you would have seen in the kitchens, why they look the way they do, and what function they would have had.

The visitor will journey through the entire process of food preparation in a hands on fashion - hearing sounds of horse and carts arriving at Seymour Gate to deliver supplies, the constant hubbub of an army of cooks hard at work in the kitchens, smells of the delicious aroma of bread baking and the unexpected wiff of seaweed coming from a barrel packed with fish from the coast - and nothing will be bolted down!

The kitchens complex was a huge production line with raw food entering through the West Front of the palace and coming out at the servery ready for delivery to the Great Hall for consumption, via a huge and skilled production team distributed throughout the fifty-five rooms of the kitchens, covering around 36,000 square feet (3,350 square metres).

Live cookery events will be held once per month throughout 2006 (*for dates see below) during which our food archaeologists will experiment in the represented kitchens with Tudor recipes, ingredients, utensils and traditional cooking methods, preparing a typical meal, and giving visitors an exclusive and fascinating look at the historic kitchens up-and-running as they would have been used when King Henry VIII lived at the palace.

Dates for Live Cookery Events

8th – 17th April , 29th April – 1st May, 27th – 29th May, 3rd – 4th June, 1st – 2nd July, 5th – 6th August, 26th – 28th August, 2nd – 3rd September, 7th – 8th October, 4th – 5th November, 27th December – 1st January