Feasts, and the rituals that accompany them, should be embraced during December
DO WE EAT or feast this month? Many of us will reach the start of the New Year convinced of the latter, and wishing we hadn't. Or at the very least will be hoping to return to some form of normality. Feasting in December is what we should be doing. The spectacle, ritual and many little cultural codes that turn a meal into an occasion are what this celebration should at least partly be concerned with. Christmas is not just another meal.
Holly, candles, mistletoe, mid-afternoon dining, the turf fire on in the morning, stockings and presents. All are our stock-in-trade of Christmas but what about feasting?
Wacky feasts have existed for centuries. Consider the 14-course feast held on horseback on the fourth floor of a New York restaurant in 1903 or the live birds emerging from folded napkins in Rome in 1513, or the feast of Elagabalus, who reigned from 218 to 222 and not only did unspeakable things to his guests but showered them literally with lilies, violets, hyacinths and narcissi. We seem to struggle with the turkey.
Am I alone in wanting the feasting of Christmas to continue into the rest of the year? For food to play a larger, not smaller part in our lives, for the focus on lunches, mid-morning breaks and afternoon teas to be adjusted so there is more time to consider, reflect and engage?
We have not always been so inclined to pack feasting away with the Christmas decorations. We have in the not too distant past used feasting in a much more integrated and traditional way. Think of harvest suppers as they once were, of hotel dining when hotels were the great destinations of before, of clubs before they became dusty retreats, of civic and academic occasions where the food did matter and the sense of occasion was built around that.
Feasting has historically been used by one group over another, inevitably for sociopolitical ends. So where are we today when much of our own society is bereft of even a kitchen table, whose eating habits are largely controlled and regulated by large companies and large factories "doing the work for us".
The closest most of us get to feasting today is the multi-course tasting menus from some of our top chefs. Yet even these largely have a predictability about them. Unless that is, you manage to squeeze into a table at El Bulli in northern Spain where the ever-changing multi-course experience is built on seemingly endless extravaganza to challenge all the senses from start to finish.
Or closer to home why not enjoy the delights of one of Ireland's culinary jewels - sea urchins, delivered on a "sea" fashioned from waves of dry ice by Kevin Thornton. A spectacle to be proud OF.
• Two books on the subject of feasting are Feast: A History of Grand Eating by Roy Strongis out of print but still available at www.amazon.co.uk . Charlemagne's Tableclothby Nichola Fletcher is also out of print, but available from www.seriouslygoodvenison.co.uk.