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Introduction to the Research Section
My core area of study covers the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. My recently completed PhD thesis focused on the role of women in driving dining change.
Between c.1750 and 1900 dinner changed almost beyond recognition. Huge changes in food production and preparation accompanied a fundamental shift in attitude to dining driven by both technological change and the social upheaval of the Industrial Revolution.
This attitudinal change was manifested on the table in the shape of dining etiquette. In the eighteenth century food was served à la Française, akin to a buffet today. Dishes were laid on the table in one to four courses, each of which could include up to 20 dishes. Diners helped themselves and others according to unspoken rules which – for English dining – remain difficult to investigate and explain. The material culture of the table was overwhelmingly biased towards plates, bowls and other serving vessels, surviving today in collections and depicted in manufacturers catalogues. By 1900 however, the structures of à la Française had been forgotten, replaced by a way of successional serving – à la Russe – which was supposedly better suited to food appreciation, showing off and ‘modern’ society. Manufacturers took advantage of the newly cleared table surfaces to produce a plethora of highly specific goods, many of which are still with us today. Written rules circulated, in the form of etiquette books, threatening social dire consequences for anyone daring not to know how to tackle an orange. Despite the survival and adaptation of some elements of the previous serving style, including material ones, à la Russe was different to à la Française in almost every way. My PhD research sought to describe and explain these differences and considered class and gender as crucial factors in the adoption of the new style.
I work within the field of historical archaeology, so my conclusions emerge from an understanding of the materiality of food and dining. This means I use documentary sources, such as cookbooks, etiquette books and manufacturers’ catalogues, but approach them using an archaeological perspective, seeking to explore dinner as a sensory experience. I also draw upon collection data, house plans and buildings analysis and, of course, experience of cooking and eating historic dishes.