THE COOK’S KITCHEN: CULINARY SILVERWARE AND GIFTS FOR EPICURES

A Christmas selling exhibition, 3 October 2011-28 January 2012

Perfect for Christmas gift ideas as well as for collectors, this selling exhibition at The London Silver Vaults in Chancery Lane will showcase every manner of silver gadget and culinary flourish for food lovers, from the Georgian, Victorian and 20th century kitchen.

Cooks employed in aristocratic homes of the Georgian period would have been provided with their own inventory of silver specifically for cooking. Silver utensils were issued to the cook because they did not taint food, they heated up quickly and were easily cleaned. Silver was a practical cooking metal, especially for preparing delicate sauces, cooking omelettes and soufflés, or for infusing fruit in brandy. Georgian and Victorian chafing dishes (with a lid), used with a dish cross (a raised silver dish holder with central burner) for cooking, or keeping warm at table, will feature in the exhibition, as will brandy pans with heat-resistant wooden handles (also useful for melting butter and small amounts of sauce). A more unusual chef’s item in the exhibition is a silver lemon or orange strainer, with two quite long (yet elaborate) handles to hang over a bowl, dated 1760, by Edmund Aldridge of London.

From this period are many items made for use in the kitchen that still have a practical purpose today: nutmeg and spice graters, shakers or casters for pepper, spices or sugar, ladles of every size from tiny for salt to arm’s length for soups and stocks, basting spoons, gravy strainers, caddy spoons and tea infusers.

The epicurean may take delight in serving up their favourite dishes in style, using silver entrée dishes, still elegant and practical for any dining table, flamboyant meat dishes and covers (which come in a multitude of sizes, even for the largest of turkeys!), butter, sauce and gravy boats. Silver mazarine dishes are quite rare, but were used to serve a whole poached fish (the mazarine is pierced to allow steam and excess liquid to drain away). Cruet sets comprising three, four or more (sometimes eight) silver-stoppered glass bottles were popular from Georgian times, and would contain a multitude of sauces for guests to help themselves at table. Silver labels might be hung on the cruet bottles, and sauce labels with quite a surprising range of names have been discovered from the latter half of the 18th century: chilli, ketchup, cayenne, soy, tarragon, lemon pickle, and elder.

By the Victorian period, a plethora of additional accessories for the presenting and serving of food became available to many households, particularly serving devices to help keep food warm, especially for households where the kitchen might be a distance from the dining room. In fact the invention of the Argyll (or Argyle) sauce warmer is attributed to a Duke of Argyll, fed-up with receiving cold food in his dining room at Inverary Castle; cleverly designed with a double exterior wall in the body (into which hot water was poured) an Argyll sauce or gravy warmer is now quite a rare item. Spoon warmers, often a nautilus (shell) or cornucopia shape, were kept on the table or sideboard to keep silver serving spoons hot; breakfast dishes with roll-over lids kept cooked breakfast warm at the buffet (some with a heat source beneath). Other primarily Victorian developments included fish slices and servers; knife rests for the carving knife; special dishes with drainers and tongs to serve asparagus, and lobster picks.

Popular from Edwardian times, and eminently useable and affordable today, were sets of pointed spoons for eating grapefruit, delicate pastry forks with one broader tine to cut through fruit tarts or cakes, carving sets, and condiment sets (salt, pepper, mustard). Many of these items come in pretty boxed sets, and at prices starting from around £100 would make charming gifts.

Even before the Georgian period, the traveller was well catered for in terms of portable, self-enclosed sets of knife and fork (in fact it was common practice before 1700 for anyone who travelled to carry their own cutlery with them), and pocket-sized graters or spice containers in a multitude of shapes (gentlemen would grate nutmeg and spices in to their hot chocolate or coffee, or add to food when eating at an inn). Several examples will be in the exhibition, as well as a late 17th century sterling silver fruit corer.

From practical yet beautiful cooking utensils to specialist cutlery and some spectacular presentation dishes, The Cook’s Kitchen will serve up a wealth of culinary ideas for Christmas gifts and collectors alike.