Medieval Midsummer’s Picnic

Join historian Dr Matthew Green and chef-to-the-stars and Times food writer Jack Burke for a delicious medieval picnic atop the plague pit in Charterhouse Square, next to a ancient monastery.

As you munch rat-sized meatballs in bright-green ale jelly, hearty rustic bread, cold eunuch-chicken pies, marzipan subtleties, alongside nuts, berries, figs, dates, nutmeg custard pies, ginger cookies and apple and quince tartlets, and hard Wensleydale cheese, amongst much more, Jack will talk you through the food and Dr Green evoke the lost world of medieval London in vivid detail.

Unlimited honey wines from coconut shells.

We will eat off thick, stale slices of rustic bread for plates.

Cutlery is for wimps — bibs provided — but bring your own picnic rug!

Musical accompaniment from an expertly-strummed medieval gittern (lute).

For much of the last century, Britain has not had a good reputation when it comes to cuisine. But much of this is to do with war rationing, a fetish for over-boiling, and the deterioration of the climate. During this immersive dining experience we will give you a taste of Britain’s original — startlingly original — cuisine.

In our hosts — chef-to-the-stars and acclaimed Times journalist Mr Jack Burke, who has founded a cult supper club in London and has worked as a private chef to VIPs all over Europe, we have someone with the gastronomic prowess and eloquent charisma to cook and communicate the wonders of medieval food — indeed the lost cuisine of Britain — and bestselling author and historian Dr Matthew Green who will set the banquet in its broader social context. See below for full bios.

But this is no dry lecture. Gloriously eschewing the etiquette that governs most modern restaurants, you will not just eat what they ate but how they ate, seizing the meat if you wish with ‘God’s cutlery’ (your hands: plastic bibs provided), glazing your plates in spittle then chucking the bones behind you, slapping your neighbour on the back and yelling ‘frolic’! to express your approval, and joining in the chants and toasts as the food arrives.

Truly it will be the most Saturnalian, yet historically faithful, picnic in London.

There will be wine of course — tureens of delicious medieval wine, dyed all the colours of the rainbow: each banqueter will be issued with a coconut shell to scoop out the elixir and pour it down your throat, as was the custom (no manners in those days). We will serve delicious chilled honey wines too.

There will be dishes of medieval aphorisms to ponder & discuss, menus-on-scrolls (yours to keep), and authentic lute music. You can sit with your friends or with total strangers and move about as you wish throughout the afternoon.

MORE ON YOUR HOSTS

MR JACK BURKE

Jack Burke is a writer, presenter and private chef whose work blends sharp observation, subcultural curiosity and a deep love of food. He’s a former QI Elf and film researcher; he wrote a cookbook for Leon. Jack studied Classics at UCL before working in television. He began cooking professionally during university summers, mostly in France and Italy, and continues to take on private chef work alongside his writing. After a cancer diagnosis in his twenties — and years of recalibration — Jack began writing a memoir and developing a television series about hidden Britain: its eccentrics, subcultures and off grid culinary traditions. He now runs Quaff Club, a popular London supper club, and his feature writing can be read in the Times, YOU Magazine and Dispatch.

DR MATTHEW GREEN

Writer, historian & broadcaster Dr Matthew Green is the author of Shadowlands: A Journey through Lost Britain (Faber), a Times top 10 bestseller, Waterstones Book of the Year 2023, and shortlisted for the Wainwright Literary Prize. He has a doctorate in history from Oxford University and has appeared in many television documentaries and radio programmes, and writes for the Telegraph, Guardian and FT. His first book, London: A Travel Guide through Time (Penguin) was described by the Sunday Times as ‘all-sensory and immersive’ and by the Londonist as ‘easily the best social history of London for a decade’. His writing has been praised by Claire Tomalin, Ian Mortimer, Cerys Matthews, and by historian and podcaster Tom Holland as ‘brilliant’. He lives in Leytonstone and loves red wine and cold-water swimming (not in that order).