Eat Medieval: Fast & Feast: A Taste of Easter Past Online Cookery School

*We are pleased to be able to offer a 25% discount to new and existing IMEMS mailing list subscribers. If you would like to join the mailing list email admin.imems@durham.ac.uk and request the code.

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‘Easter’ conjures many images - bunnies, eggs, and chocolate, as well as its central place in Christianity. Some but far from all of these would have been familiar in the Middle Ages. Easter and Lent hold a special place for medieval European society, with a wide range of culinary traditions and dishes to satisfy all manner of different tastes.

'Fast and Feast' is a five-day online cookery course opening up the intriguing world of medieval Easter. Eat Medieval – an exciting collaboration between the master chefs of Blackfriars Restaurant, Newcastle, UK Durham University's Institute of Medieval & Early Modern Studies (IMEMS), UK – will bring European medieval food and the traditions of the festival marking the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox, to your dining table. Steeped in history and working with the best of modern cuisine.

Moving from England to France and Catalonia we will introduce you to different culinary collections and traditions. Lent and Easter show, wonderfully, how inventive medieval chefs could be when faced with the challenges of food regulation. Fasting and Fish Days in Lent, and a huge feast including meat at Easter. We’ll show you eggs that are not eggs, meat dishes with no meat, as well as spectacular roasts, vegetarian sides, and wonderful puddings. We’ll take the original recipes and present them for the modern palate and introduce you to the historical period as well. What were the origins of the Easter bunny? When were Easter Eggs first mentioned? What was Collop Monday? Was lamb always associated with Easter?

Blackfriars is the perfect venue for the course. Housed in the medieval buildings of a Dominican Priory, chefs Chris and Craig, and owner Andy Hook, join forces with Professor Giles Gasper and colleagues from Durham University and further afield, to bring you Fast & Feast: A Taste of Easter Past.

WHERE: This is an online course for you to enjoy from the comfort of your own kitchen!

ACCESS: Before the course starts, you’ll receive a code for pages on our website. The first code will unlock your shopping list, and some substitutes for the more unusual ingredients, so you can buy the necessary food you’ll be cooking at home. The second code will unlock the recipes, pre-recorded films - from chefs and scholars, as well as suggested reading and other online resources which will be available throughout.

TIMES: In terms of allocating yourself sufficient time to enjoy the course, there will be a live introduction on the first day plus regular live Q&A's throughout the week to answer any questions you might have. Otherwise, the daily introduction and summaries, short academic films, films of the chefs cooking, recipes and other resources will be available for 4 weeks so plenty of time to get to grips with the course material.

Join the Eat Medieval Team hosted by Andy Hook and chefs from Blackfriars, and Professor Giles Gasper, Durham University, for a journey to a taste of the past.