February 12, 2003
OTP serves up luncheon feast fit for a queen
Characters from 'The Lion in Winter' preside over medieval food sampling
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
It was a feast fit for a queen - so lucky one showed up.
The Horizon Shine Caf‚ played host Thursday afternoon to a luncheon with Queen Eleanor of Acquitaine, the wife of King Henry the II of England. Circa 1183, that is.
In honor of the current production of "The Lion in Winter" at the Old Town Playhouse, director Margaret Schaal decided to share the royal fun with the community and drum up interest in the play. So Queen Eleanor was summoned to a medieval luncheon in winter, along with a few other characters from the play.
The 25 attendees at the event welcomed the chance to rub shoulders with royalty while asking questions about history and sampling of medieval food.
"I think this was an excellent idea," said Nancy Lawton of Traverse City. "I learned something about the historical setting. I have to confess, I knew nothing about the play, hadn't read it in high school or anything, but now I'm going to try and fit it in."
Unfortunately, organizers overlooked one small detail of the royal retinue.
"I didn't eat a bite," said the Queen. "There was no one to taste it first - but I did hear it was wonderful."
Portraying a queen has been both fun and absorbing for veteran actress Nan Worthington, who in real life works as a neonatal intensive care nurse. Worthington sewed her own costume and dove into historical research, exploring art history books, the library and the Internet to glean the smallest details of medieval life.
"It does help you to be in character, because you know certain things about why you are dressed in certain ways or how or why you would react to people," said Worthington, who enjoyed the opportunity at the luncheon to answer questions about the play's history or production.
"Sometimes you have to take what you've learned and just enjoy it because some things in the play are out of sync with history, like there were no Christmas trees and Christmas presents in 1183," she said.
Of course, there's the biggest perk of her role:
"It is pretty fun to wear a crown and sit on a throne," Worthington noted.
The feast was created by culinary consultant Judith Breen of Lake Leelanau, and cooked up by chef Nancy Campbell. The luncheon included My Three Sons Soup, a swirl of multi-colored potato soup, Richard's Something's Fishy Pate and Regal Red Spread, plus Philip's Frenchy Brie Tart.
Breen, a professional recipe tester for cookbooks, also gave a lecture on the history of medieval food, from royalty to peasants. Breen described the ingredients, cooking methods, eating utensils and social settings of the times. She also described the historical and ethnic influences on the fare of England in the 12th Century.
She traced cherries, wine, peas and corn to Roman conquerors, wheat breads to the Normans and the extensive use of herbs for flavor and bulk to the Saxons. The forays of Crusaders to the Middle East brought back lemons and oranges to Britain, which was always a great trading nation.
"The history of Great Britain has played a large part in the traditions of culture and food there," she said. "The three different countries there - England, Scotland and Wales - each have a rich, varied history."
While the few, wealthy people in England at that time had their foods flavored with spices from as far away as Asian, Breen said the poor were lucky to eat at all. They subsisted on a diet of bread as well as porridge made from oats and barley, all washed down with ale and wine. The bread was not a leavened loaf, but a flat bread akin to pita bread.
"There is a real push, a great deal of interest in culinary anthropology, the history of food," said Breen, who clarified that she is not a culinary anthropologist by training, just an interested amateur. "It is a really, really hot topic in the industry."
For more information on this weekend's productions of "The Lion in Winter," contact the Old Town Playhouse box office at 947-2443.