MARK THE OCCASION AND THROW YOUR OWN BIG JUBILEE LUNCH
THE DRINKS ➤ Champagne: Bollinger has had a royal warrant – given to companies that do significant business with the Royal Family – since Queen Victoria’s days. Pol Roger also holds a royal warrant and the Queen has been known to serve the bubbles at her functions.
➤ The Royal Stag Courtesy of Denis Broci, Claridge’s Bar, London Provenance When I visited Claridge’s this spring, I discovered staff at this storied Mayfair hotel have long called it the “annex of Buckingham Palace” (because the Windsors, et al, often come here to party). To celebrate the Jubilee, visitors can view some of its royal memorabilia: hand-written letters from the Queen Mother, entries from Queen Victoria’s diaries, a vintage fan created for the coronation of King George V (Queen Elizabeth’s grandfather) and photographs from Queen Elizabeth’s 1953 coronation. Stop in at Claridge’s Bar or The Fumoir, a snug secret bar off the lobby, where they are mixing up special cocktails, including a modern take on the Windsor Rose, served during the coronation year, as well as the Royal Stag.
Makes 1 drink 40 ml (1½ fl oz) The Dalmore 15 (or 15-year Scotch of your choice) 20 ml (¾ fl oz) Sweet Vermouth Blend 20 ml (¾ fl oz) Campari 2 dashes of Bénédictine 2 dashes of Chocolate Bitters 1 dash of Roasted Almond Tincture Square of 75% dark chocolate, to garnish Stir all the ingredients but the chocolate in a mixing glass, then strain into a chilled rocks glass over an ice block. Garnish with chocolate.
THE FOOD ➤ Coronation Chicken Sandwich Courtesy of chef Christopher Hannon, Cliveden House, Berkshire, England Provenance Cliveden House was home to Harriet, the Duchess of Sutherland, a confidant of Queen Victoria and her Mistress of the Robes. Nancy Astor, the American heiress who was the first woman to sit in the British Parliament, was lady of the house in the 1920s and ’30s, where she hosted politicos of the day, dubbed the Cliveden Set. But some may remember it as the centre of the scandalous Profumo Affair, where, in the early ’60s, British secretary of state John Profumo began his “business” with 19-yearold model Christine Keeler, who was also dating a Russian operative. The mess eventually brought down prime minister Harold Macmillan’s government a few years later.
Scotch Eggs
➤ Courtesy of Mark Drummond, Holborn Dining Room head chef, The Rosewood London Provenance The Rosewood London, a gorgeous example of Edwardian architecture, was home to the famous, including philosophers Sir Francis Bacon and Sir Thomas More, poet John Milton and Charles Dickens, who wrote The Pickwick Papers there. Bloomsbury, where Virginia Woolf held court, and the University of London are a stone’s throw away.
➤ Victoria Sponge Courtesy of Luke Matthews, executive head chef of Chewton Glen Hotel & Spa, Hampshire, England Provenance Situated next to New Forest National Park, William the Conqueror’s hunting grounds, Chewton is also home to a renowned cooking school. The hotel has treehouses as part of its accommodations: If you recall, it was Elizabeth who went up to bed in a treehouse in Kenya as a princess, and came down the next morning as Queen.
➤ Chocolate Biscuit Cake Provenance Courtesy of Carolyn Robb, who for 10 years, was the personal chef to Charles, Diana, William and Harry. Her cookbook, The Royal Touch: Simply Stunning Home Cooking from a Royal Chef, is a collection of 100 recipes – including the Chocolate Biscuit Cake Prince William chose as his groom’s cake – as well as anecdotes and letters from Kensington Palace. One of Her Majesty’s favourites, try it at The Park Room (formerly the ice rink where Elizabeth learned to skate as a young girl), at JW Marriott Grosvenor House London, as a version using Valrhona chocolate is on the hotel’s Jubilee tea menu. visitbritain.com