Find your Place at the Table of King Jan III Sobieski

Culinary workshops focused on Old-Polish recipes in contemporary practice and discovering ceremonial of Polish royal court | for school children, adults and families

Foto: Culinary workshop for gastronomic schools’ students from Sokółka / Wojciech Holnicki

In frames of "A Place at the Royal Table" programme Museum of King Jan III's Palace at Wilanów will organize: 60 workshops for school children (also for gastronomic schools’ students), 5 workshops for adults and 5 workshops for families. We started on 15 March 2018 with Sokółka cooking school students.

Master chefs Maciej Nowicki, Norbert Sokołowski and Marcin Chmieliński guided workshop participants to discover the flavours of baroque cuisine in wonderful baroque royal residence. Together, they cooked up their own interpretations of recipes found in the first Polish cookbooks from 17th and 18th c., which are an accurate reflection of European culinary tradition.

“Royal golden salmon”, along with thick anise- and saffron-seasoned sauce, was served as the main dish. The young chefs were also in for a surprise: their tutors showed them the “salty fish sausage” dish, also known as the perfect example of an Old Polish culinary illusion. To prepare this course, they seasoned finely chopped fish with salt, cinnamon, raisins and saffron. Next, they skewered the fish meat into... sausage shape. Though consisting of pike, this fasting dish both looked and tasted like meat! The royal feast ended with a dessert called “ulipki with foam and orange jam”, i.e. an Old Polish version of rolled wafers with cream.

The second part of the workshops focused on savoir vivre. We unravelled the intricacies of flatware placing and learned how to properly use cutlery. We studied the principles of precedence and role played both guests and hosts. We took on quite a challenge and attempted to elegantly consume some really difficult dishes!

Old Polish cuisine was full of mysteries, contrasts, and unusual taste combinations. We are going to discover them during the culinary workshops in Museum of King Jan III's Palace at Wilanów!

workshops, Old-Polish recipes, culinary, children, adults, families, Wilanów, gastronomic schools