Guided by food historian Dr Annie Gray and social historian Emma Dabiri, our modern professionals enter the world of the 16th century confectioner – a time when sugar was believed to have medicinal qualities and was so valuable it was kept under lock and key, the preserve of the elite. Every dish the team makes will form part of an elaborate aristocratic sugar banquet.
The confectioners will spend four days using original recipes, ingredients and equipment to create dishes that haven’t been made, let alone tasted, for hundreds of years.
Their final lavish sugar banquet includes candied roses (believed to cure gonorrhea), a sweet candied root that was considered to be a Tudor aphrodisiac; sugar plates and goblets, gorgeously decorated marzipan and a spectacular model banqueting house made entirely of sugar