Ice Cream Machine For A Royal Banquet

Recently I watched a fascinating tv documentary showing Queen Elizabeth II hosting a banquet for a visiting Head of State. The care and attention to detail from the serving staff through to the chefs and kitchen staff was impeccable and not only that but their timing - what to serve, when, what to remove from the table, what to offer and when. I watched with complete admiration for the quality of effort that went into the whole affair. Oh and how wonderful the food looked!

I had just one frustration - I couldn't clearly see what dessert was on the menu. Was it ice cream I wondered? So I started searching on the Internet for what those honoured guests might have eaten.

Courtesy of the official website of the British Monarchy, I found a sample menu from an actual Royal Banquet. Not only that, but it gave the recipes for you to try at home. How wonderful! I wanted to put a link here to the page concerned but according to the official site's Terms they don't allow incoming links without formal permission. So rather than risk being hauled off to the Tower of London, I'll just tell you how to find the web page - go Google and search for "royal recipes to try at home". If you see a page listed with royal.gov in the domain that should be it.

Anyway, back to the point of this article ... I looked for the dessert on the sample 'royal' menu and found it listed as Parfait à la Meringue au Citron (Lemon Meringue Parfait). Then, when I read the recipe, I couldn't help but smile .... the recipe requires the use of an ice cream machine!

So there you have it, if an ice cream machine is needed to make a dessert for a Royal Banquet then that's as good an endorsement as you might ever find to invest in one. I certainly would not be without my ice cream maker!