A Tudor feast
When a Moro-trained chef, a set designer and an art gallery join forces to produce a pop-up dining experience, you know it’s going to be pretty special.
This time the team behind the Art of Dining – who have thus far staged a 1930s beach café, a war time rations party and a countryside fayre in a chapel – have dug further back in time to stage a deliciously decadent Tudor feast for a truly visceral experience. The setting? Only a Tudor cottage in Hackney’s Homerton – National Trust’s Sutton House and all. It's called Vanitas and it takes its inspiration from this genre of still life painting that explored pleasure, life and death.
In the oak-panelled grand hall – made fit for a king by set designer Alice Hodge – a 16th-century style banquet of five courses will be cooked up by Chef Ellen Parr and revellers will be invited to get stuck in, Henry VIII style. Digging through mountains of ripe fruit and tearing meat straight from the bone against a backdrop of human skulls, burning candles and decaying flowers will be the order of the day.
As well as your historically accurate grub, you’ll be asked to take a turn around an exhibition curated by The Horsebox Gallery. Contemporary artists and photographers will be showcasing their work inspired by 15th and 16th-century art, history and culture.
Banqueters will be asked to donate (a compulsory) £45 for the pleasure but can swig their own ales and wines from goblets.
Sutton House, 2-4 Homerton High St, E9 6JQ. To book a table visit theartofdining.co.uk. A compulsory donation of £45 is expected. Vanitas runs from Tuesday March 27 to Saturday March 31. Doors from 7pm, dinner served at 8pm.
