Vegetable Consommé for Upstairs Dinner’s Second Course

            Wickham Place is the London home of Lord and Lady Southgate, their children and staff.  Located in fashionable Belgravia it is a fine Georgian terrace house.  

Today we are below stairs in the Wickham Place kitchen.  The Wickham Place kitchens are situated on the ground floor of Wickham Place, adjoining the Butler’s Pantry.  It is dominated by big black leaded range, and next to it stands a heavy dark wood dresser that has been there for as long as anyone can remember.  In the middle of the kitchen stands Cook’s preserve, the pine deal table on which she does most of her preparation for both the meals served to the family upstairs and those for the downstairs staff.  And here we are before the range at the pine deal table where Mrs. Bradley the Cook is going to give her scullery maid another cooking lesson by having her prepare vegetable consommé for the second course for the upstairs dinner this evening.

“Agnes.  Agnes.”

“Yes, Mrs. Bradley?”   Agnes scurries over from the sink.

“I think you’ve earned the right for another cooking lesson.”

“Oh!  Oh really Mrs. Bradley!  Your famous soufflé?”

“Heavens girl!”  the older woman cries, throwing her careworn hands in the air.  “Do you really think me a loon?  I’ve told you before.  You need to learn the basics of plain cooking before I can teach you anything fancy.  And a clear consommé of vegetables will be fancy enough for you.”

“That sounds very fancy Mrs. Bradley.”

“That’s because them who eat upstairs,” she raises her eyes to the ceiling.  “Like their fancy names for their finely cut vegetable soup.” 

“Vegetable soup, Mrs. Bradley?”  Agnes’ shoulders slump.

“Now!  Now!  Buck up my girl!”  the Cook says as she steps towards her enormous range to stir a pot over the flame with her wooden spoon.  “Don’t think of it as vegetable soup.  Think of it as,” She flourishes her spoon through the air.  “Consommé.”

Agnes goes to the pine deal dresser on the left hand side of the range an takes out the big copper stock pot and under Mrs. Bradley’s instruction, fetches carrots, parsnips, potatoes, onions, leek, a clove of garlic and thinking it might also go in, a radish.

“Did I say a radish, girl?”

“No Mrs. Bradley.”

“No radish in vegetable consommé, Agnes.”

“But it’s a vegetable, Mrs. Bradley.”

“So’s an artichoke, but you aren’t putting that into it either girl!”

“No Mrs. Bradley.”  Agnes says with an apologetic tone.

“Now, get chopping girl!  Small pieces mind.  We don’t want upstairs choking on big chunks of potato, now do we?”

“No, Mrs. Bradley.”

The theme for the 11th of September “Looking Close… on Friday” is “vegetables”.  This tableaux is made up of part of my 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures collection.  Some pieces come from my own childhood like the ladderback chair and the teapot on the dresser in the background.  Other items I acquired as an adult through specialist online dealers and artists who specialise in 1:12 miniatures.  

Fun things to look for in this tableaux include:

All the vegetables and garlic clove seen on Cook’s deal table are artisan miniatures from a specialist stockist of food stuffs from Kettering in England, as are the onions hanging to the right of the range.  He has a dizzying array of meals which is always growing, and all are made entirely or put together by hand, so each item is individual. 

The kitchen knife with its inlaid handle and sharpened blade comes from English miniatures specialist Doreen Jeffries Small Wonders Miniature store.    

The copper stock pot, the copper pan and the pots on the range in the background are all made of real copper and come from various miniature stockists in England and America.

In front of stock pot containing carrots and parsnips is one of Cook’s Cornishware white and blue striped bowls.  One of her Cornishware cannisters stands to the left of the pot.  Cornishware is a striped kitchenware brand trademarked to and manufactured by T.G. Green & Co Ltd.  Originally introduced in the 1920s and manufactured in Church Gresley, Derbyshire, it was a huge success for the company and in the succeeding 30 years it was exported around the world. The company ceased production in June 2007 when the factory closed under the ownership of parent company, The Tableshop Group.  The range was revived in 2009 after T.G. Green was bought by a trio of British investors.

To the right of the stock pot and Cornishware bowl stands a silver Art Nouveau cup which is a dolls’ house miniature from Germany, made in the first decade of the Twentieth Century.  It is a beautiful work of art as a stand alone item and is remarkably heavy.

The jars of herbs are also 1:12 miniatures, made of real glass with real cork stoppers in them.  

The large kitchen range in the background is a 1:12 miniature replica of the coal fed Phoenix Kitchen Range.  A mid-Victorian model, it has hinged opening doors, hanging bars above the stove and a little bass hot water tap (used in the days before plumbed hot water).

Taken on: August 28, 2020

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Camera: Canon DIGITAL IXUS 80 IS, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, 6.2mm, ISO 500 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon DIGITAL IXUS 80 IS
Aperture:	f/2.8
Exposure Time:	0.017 sec (1/60)
Focal Length:	6.2mm
ISO:	500
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
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