The Gourmet's Guide to London

by Lieut.-Col. Newnham-Davis

The soup-room on the first floor, to which a flight of narrow little steps ascends, has a calmer atmosphere. Here, in a room with walls the paper of which has been turned to a deep amber tint by the London atmosphere, gentlemen sup, sitting down, their plates of turtle soup or oxtail, and drink their wine with dignified composure. There are tall white wedding cakes under glasses in this room also. The servitors in white aprons are busy in the soup-room, though not quite as busy as downstairs amongst the jam puffs.

Up yet another Jacob's ladder of stairs is the ladies' room, which I fancy is used as a chapel of ease for the soup-room, though it is said that rich old widow ladies going quarterly to draw their income from the Bank of England always go into Birch's for a plate of turtle soup and a glass of sherry. Yet one flight of stairs higher is the office of the firm of Messrs Ring and Brymer, who have owned Birch's since 1836. In this room, in old leather-covered books, are wonderful records of hecatombs of baked meats and roasted fowl served at City banquets without end. The two oldest members of the firm have died of late years. These two old gentlemen, Mr Ring and Mr Brymer, who looked like archdeacons in mufti, and had exactly the right dignity for men who provide and control the Lord Mayor's feasts, had both a wonderful memory for banquets that the firm had provided. I happened to mention one day in their presence that a forbear of mine, a banker and brewer, Alderman Newnham, had been Lord Mayor of London, and at once they said that in their books were the details of a feast given by the worthy old gentleman when he was sheriff, and taking down an old volume they showed me how many gallons of turtle soup, the number of sirloins of beef, and the quantity of fair white chickens, orange jellies and plum puddings that the old alderman paid for. It is a very cosy little room in which to lunch, this office of the firm, and the turtle soup, with its great squares of turtle flesh in it, a sole Colbert, a grouse pie, angels on horseback, and a big helping of that wonderful orange jelly, a clouded delicacy that has the flavour of the orange stronger than any other jelly made by any other pastry-cook, and which is a speciality of the house, taste all the better for being eaten in the little room on the walls of which are old Guildhall menus and old pictures of City feasts and portraits of city celebrities, and many letters from the great panjandrums of City companies, giving praise to Messrs Ring and Brymer for the excellence of the banquets supplied by them.

All the preparations for a Guildhall or a Company banquet, except the cooking that goes on in the kitchens of the halls, used to be made in the kitchens below No. 15 Cornhill, and the houses on either side of it, and it used to be one of the free afternoon sights of the City to see the kitchen-men carrying out through the little entrance door the soup and the pastry, the jellies and the cakes for a City banquet. When two great insurance offices squeezed in on either side of the pastry-cook's shop, Messrs Ring and Brymer had to look for other kitchens, and they now have a house in Bunhill Row, where on the top storey there is a great kitchen for the cooking of the soup and other delicacies, and where in the basement the turtles spend their last sad days before being butchered to make a Lord Mayor's holiday. At Bunhill Row there is also a cosy little office with the arms of many of the City companies as its wall ornaments.

Old Tom Birch, who was the second of his line, the son of Lucas Birch who succeeded the Hornton dynasty, was a man of many interests and a great celebrity of the City. His Christian name was Samuel, but he was "Tom" in the mouths of all City men. He was Lord Mayor of London in 1814, the only pastry-cook who has ever attained to that high dignity. He was a great orator, and an enthusiastic supporter of Pitt; he was Lieut.-Colonel of the first regiment of Loyal London Volunteers raised at the time of the French Revolution, and he wrote several comedies which were performed at Covent Garden and Drury Lane. There is still extant a song of the day, which no doubt in its time had a great success in City circles, in which a Frenchman coming to London, and being taken round the sights, is surprised to learn that the colonel of a regiment he sees on parade is old Tom Birch, the pastry-cook; that a governor holding forth to the boys at St Paul's School; that an orator in the Guildhall; and that the author of a comedy at Covent Garden, are all one and the same estimable old Tom.

A Lord Mayor's Guildhall banquet to-day has all the same outward pomp and gorgeousness that it had eighty or a hundred years ago. But a Lord Mayor's banquet, so far as good things to eat and to drink are concerned, is absolutely different to-day from what it was half-a-century ago. This is the menu of the feast that Messrs Ring and Brymer provided on Lord Mayor's day 1913 for the Guildhall banquet. The baron of beef is, of course, just as much a civic dish as is the turtle soup, but the dinner is, on the whole, quite a light one:

Turtle. Clear Turtle.
Fillets of Turbot Duglère.
Lobster Mousse.
Turban of Sweetbread and Truffles.
Baron of Beef.
Salad.
Casserole of Partridge.
Cutlets Royale.
Tongues.
Orange Jelly.
Italian Creams. Strawberry Creams.
Maids of Honour.
Princess Pastry.
Ices. Dessert.

The wines for this occasion were: Punch. Sherry—Gonzalez. Hock—Rüdesheim. Champagne—Clicquot, 1904; Bollinger, 1904. Moselle—Scharzberger. Claret—La Rose, 1899. Port—Dow's, 1896. Bénédictine. Grande Chartreuse. Perrier. The cost of the dinner, including wine, came to about two guineas a head.

And now as a contrast I give you the menu of the banquet given in the Guildhall on Lord Mayor's Day, 1837. This was a Royal entertainment. The menu is a yard in length, and it comprises the dishes at the Royal table and the general bill of fare as well. I only give you the dishes served at the Royal table, which form an extraordinary mass of flesh, of fish, fruit, fowl, in season and out of season. The buffet, no doubt, held the dishes for which there was not room on the table. The wines served at this banquet are put down simply as Champagne, Hock, Claret, Burgundy, Madeira, Port, Sherry:

Three Potages.
Potage de Tortue à l'Anglaise.
Consommé de Volaille.
Potage à la Brunoise.
Three Plats de Poisson.
Turbot bouilli garni aux Merlans frits.
Rougets farcis à la Villeroi.
Saumon bouilli garni aux Eperlans.
Three Relevés.
Poulets bouillis, aux Langues de Veau Glacés, garnis de
Croustade à la Macédoine.
Noix de Veau en Daube décorée à la Bohémienne.
Filet de Bœuf à la Sanglier en Chasse.
Eight Entremets.
Ris d'Agneau piqués à la Turque aux petits Pois.
Sauté de filets de Faisans aux Truffes.
Pâté chaud aux Bécassines à l'Italienne.
Casserole de pieds d'Agneau aux Champignons.
Sultanne de filets de Soles à la Hollandaise, garnis aux Ecrevisses.
Timbale de Volaille à la Dauphine.
Filets de Lièvre confis aux Tomates.
Côtelettes de Perdreaux au Suprême.
Buffet.
Potage à la Turque.
Hochepot de Faisan.
Tranches de Cabillaud.
Eperlans frits.
Langue de Bœuf.
Jambon à la Jardinière.
Bœuf rôti. Mouton rôti.
Agneau rôti. Agneau bouilli.
Hanche de Venaison.
Pierre grillé au Vin de Champagne,
Petit Pâtés aux Huîtres.
Croquettes.
Côtelettes d'Agneau aux Concombres.
Dindon rôti aux Truffes à l'Espagnole.
SECOND SERVICE.
Three Plats de Rôti.
Faisans.
Bécasses.
Cercelles.
Three Relevés.
Souflet de Vanille.
Pommes à la Portugaise.
Gaufres à la Flamande.
Four Pâtisseries Montées.
Vase en Croquante garni de Pâtisserie aux Confitures.
Fontaine Grecque, garnie aux petit-choux.
Vase de Beurre frais aux Crevettes.
Fontaine Royale garnie de Pâtisserie à la Genévoise.
Twelve Entremets.
Crème d'Ananas garnie.
Gelée au Vin de Champagne garnie aux fruits.
Homards à la Rémoulade.
Mayonnaise de Poulet à l'Aspic.
Fanchonettes d'Orange, garnies aux Pistaches.
Compôte des Pêches, en petits Panniers.
Tartelettes aux Cerises, en Nougat.
Petites Coupes d'Amarids à la Chantilly.
Culs d'Artichauts en Mayonnaise.
Anguille au Beurre de Montpellier.
Gelée au Marasquin, décorée.
Gâteaux de Pommes en Mosaïque, à la Crème d'Abricot.
Buffet.
Poulets rôtis.
Bécassines rôties.
Canards Sauvages rôtis.
Tourte aux Pommes.
Tourte aux Cerises.
Beignets de Pommes.
Fondu de Parmesan.
Trifle à la Crème.
Plum Pudding.
Mince Pies.

No wonder our grandfathers mostly died of apoplexy!