The Aperitif Guy

You can't escape eggs at the moment. Whether you're reading about the shortages brought on by this winter's outbreak of avian flu or have hens of your own to worry about, those eggs will be on your mind, and the chocolate ones have been in the shops at least a month already! Eggs feature in spring folk customs right across the northern hemisphere. It is commonly told that our Easter eggs have their origins in German and Norse paganism, but that is to ignore their importance in the Jewish Passover ritual and the presence of painted and gilded eggs as symbols of death and rebirth in many parts of ancient Asia and Africa. As a specifically Christian symbol, the tradition of painting and exchanging eggs appears to have been adopted first by early Christians in Mesopotamia. From there, the custom spread through the Orthodox churches and had become common in the western Church some time before the seventeenth century. The first edition of the Roman Ritual, from 1610 includes pray...

We don't think of our food culture in western Europe as having been influenced by Russia, but without it we wouldn't have chefs in tall hats, pre-dinner drinks & nibbles or dining in a series of courses. If you've been following this series about menu-planning, you'll know that this style of dining is known as service russe - Russian service. Catherine the Great (Follower of Johann Baptist von Lampi the Elder) [Public domain] When the Tsars established their capital at St Petersburg, they made a conscious determination to look westward to Europe. Catherine the Great, in particular, brought in western aesthetics in art and design and western ideas about education and government. She introduced the practice of speaking French at the Imperial court, since French was the most popular language among European diplomats at the time, and brought over French cooks to work at court. Very quickly, it became very fashionable to employ a French cook, bringing French...