Chefs serve whale vomit dish at castle feast

A 300-dish banquet believed to have been served to Queen Elizabeth I has been recreated by top jelly chefs Sam Bompas and Harry Parr at Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire. It was based on a feast thought to have been served in 1575 as part of a 19-day extravaganza put on by Sir Robert Dudley, the owner of the castle.

The 5.5m (18.04ft) x 1.5m (4.92ft) banquet table consisted of towering sugar sculptures, gold gilded jelly and a galaxy of custard tarts. A quarter of a tonne of sugar was used for the sculptures along with dried sturgeon stomach, 24 carat gold at £26 a gramme, whale vomit and pigs bladder skins.



Bompas said: "To come up with 300 different dishes in any circumstances is tricky. "To come up with 300 Elizabethan dishes, which is a whole culinary world very different to our own, we thought was impossible to start with but a lot of hard work and we are there.

"One of my particular favourites is Ambergris otherwise known as whale vomit. They are also cooked with 24 carat gold ... when you are trying to impress someone like Queen Elizabeth I, you just want to put it over all the dishes, it's bound to win favour."

With news video.