Online cookery shows attract more attention than ever

The internet was chock-a-block with recipes, online cookery shows, instructional videos before the coronavirus pandemic, but now these items are more vital than ever. New videos from chefs cooking at home have educated, inspired, and entertained us. Yotam Ottolenghi is planning an Instagram live event for 11 April at 5:00 p.m. GMT, where he will provide substitutions for many of the items on his recipes’ notoriously lengthy ingredient lists.

It’s not just videos from chefs that are drawing attention, however. Celebrities are getting love from their fans – millions watched as Oprah made carbonara (allegedly) for the first time – and even organizations like English Heritage are jumping into the fray. While historic properties are closed to visitors, you can still get your food history fix by watching reenactments of how cooks would prepare meals in the 19th century.

Starring in these videos is Kathy Hipperson, a historical interpreter who plays country house Victorian cook Avis Crocombe. You can watch as she prepares a variety of recipes ranging from queen drop biscuits to turbot à l’anglaise. The recipes are more for entertainment than actually making, unless you have your own scullery maids or kitchen maids. However, they do provide insight on what it was like to work in a Victorian estate and eat like someone in high society.

Whenever I tour historic properties, I linger the longest in the kitchens. It’s fascinating to see how primitive most of these workrooms were, even in the largest of mansions. Servants toiled in hot, often dimly-lit basement rooms filled with enormous wood- or coal-fed stoves. The most well-appointed of these manor kitchens that I’ve seen was in the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. Built in the late 1890s, this home had the latest technologies of the time, including the kitchens: there was mechanical refrigeration, a dumbwaiter, a primitive intercom system, and two kinds of electrical wiring (AC and DC). Despite these advancements, the kitchen had low ceilings and little in the way of ergonomics.

While these historic kitchens retain a certain amount of charm, they make me realize how good I have it in my modern home with its myriad appliances and gadgets. It is fun to watch these recreations for a glimpse at how much has changed – and how much is the same – between 19th century kitchens and those of the 21st century.

Photos of the historic kitchens at Powis Castle, Wales by Darcie Boschee