Event Details
- Start Date 10/12/2025
- Start Time 11:00
- End Date 10/12/2025
- End Time 13:00
- Location San Roque Club
The Curious History Of Christmas Food
by Peter Ross
Discover the Deliciously Curious History of Christmas Feasting!
From medieval boar’s head and brawn to ornate seventeenth-century mince pies and the nearly forgotten Twelfth Night Cake, this visually rich lecture brings centuries of festive food traditions to life. Through dazzling images from illuminated manuscripts, historic paintings, and antique cookbooks, you’ll uncover the lost glories of the British Christmas feast—a mouth-watering journey through time you won’t want to miss!
ABOUT THE LECTURER
Peter Ross holds a BA in the History of Art, an MA in London History, and a PhD in the cultural history of the early eighteenth-century criminal Jack Sheppard. Until 2023, he was Principal Librarian at the City of London’s Guildhall Library. He is also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.
Peter has appeared on television and radio as a consultant on eighteenth-century London crime, the history of English food, and Shakespeare’s First Folio. His book The Curious Cookbook: Viper Soup, Badger Ham, Stewed Sparrows, and a Hundred More Historic Recipes was published by the British Library in 2012 and later released in the US, China, and Taiwan.
He is currently working on a new book, Insatiable Appetites: Eating Out in Georgian London, to be published by the Bodleian Library in 2026.