By Bompas and Parr
Back in 2009 for the London Design Festival, the Jellymongers Sam Bompas and Harry Parr unveiled their plans to hold a Black Banquet consisting of an eight course meal of all black food.
The banquet was held at a pop-up club inside the beautiful Georgian House of St Barnabas in Soho with its own garden and Chapel, which housed a black pyramid jelly tower.
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| The Chapel |
On our arrival, we were served warm spiced black cocktails in teacups and were free to wander the grounds.
Then we were invited into the garden to watch a couple of the Fuel Girls play with fire in front of a palm tree made of old tyres.
Afterwards, we were summoned to the dining rooms, which were highly atmospheric with the dark balloons, purple lighting and decorations. The tables were furnished with black concrete figurines, shiny Black Jack (must've taken ages to peel the papers off all these) and liquorice towers and black matte ostrich eggs with guests' names on them in chalk. Flower arrangements were arranged of all naturally dark flowers: Black Dahlias, Black Calla Lillies and clusters of blackberries, blackcurrants and black grapes.
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| One of the dining rooms |
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| Black Jack Tower |
After reading that Bompas and Parr had taken inspiration for the event from black banquets of the past, I didn't know what to expect. At the first black banquet held in 1511 by The Company of the Trowel, guests entered through a huge serpent's jaws, were ushered to their seats by a "hideous devil" and served food hidden in repulsive creatures such as spiders, newts and scorpions. I had hoped we weren't going to meet a similar fate.
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| The Menu |
In the meantime, I enjoyed a black blackberry cocktail and had a chat with some of the other guests around me at the dining table.
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| Blackberry Cocktail |
The food was created by New York chefs A Razor, A Shiny Knife and the menu was as follows (the penultimate course by the way was Black Pudding, Stone Fruit, Malt, Cola but I've not got a picture of this):
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| Blackberry, Caviar, Cream Cheese |
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| John Dory, Confit Lemon, Tamari Soy |
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| Maldon Rock Oyster, Cuttlefish, Black Garlic Aioli |
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| Egg, Fresh Tofu, Hijiki - the egg looks weird because it is "100 years old" |
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| Halibut, Black Truffle, Trumpet Mushroom, Trenette (squid ink pasta) |
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| Beef Tenderloin, Balsamic, Tomato, Mozzarella |
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| Jelly Ziggurat |
Drinks were of the dark variety - dark cocktails, dark red wine, dark shots...all served in dark Waterford Crystal glasses so they looked genuinely black.
The food and drinks were delicious and all that good stuff was intensified by the theatre surrounding it. A truly brilliant evening in all respects!
As with all of these things, the people you meet tend to be pretty normal, usually interesting but I hadn't anticipated scary! The banquet was a little bit spooky with it being themed "black" but when I switched seats with the person next to me to speak to the guy who looked like he had a horn growing out of his head (apparently just an injury - yes, I did ask), he told me he studied some kind of religion at university. He later casually mentioned that he was a devil worshipper who spends his spare time in graveyards trying to evoke evil spirits...time to leave.
Needless to say, I got out of the dining room pretty quickly (thankfully I only switched seats after eating) and went and found Sam Bompas who was busy in the kitchen. I thanked him for a wonderful evening and we chatted, then he took my address so he could send me a glow in the dark lollipop. I was sceptical but as promised, one arrived the following week and it (and everything it touched) really did glow in the dark! They should sell these in night clubs!!
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