Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This event, originally titled ‘Food and Spectacle: Medieval to Modern’, took place on 31 May 2025. The information below is correct as of the publication date.
Historians, chefs and food artists discussed the spectacular power and politics of food through the ages.
Live frogs leaping from a gigantic medieval pie, 12ft-high Royal wedding cakes, Georgian terrines shaped like Greek temples and the latest viral food TikTok - spectacle and food go hand in hand. Including elements of spectacle, this event used examples from the British Library’s manuscript collections, secrets from a professional kitchen and the story of the cook for kings who wished he was an architect, to delve into the past and look into the future to explore the meaning, politics and practices of food.
This event took place during Big Weekend of the British Library Food Season 2025, in partnership with Miele.
About Food Season Big Weekend:
The Big Weekend is the climax of the British Library Food Season. Our banquet of delights included panels exploring food from Eastern Europe, China, the US and Mexico and the way that Latin American sweet treats are at the heart of community.
To join more online and in person events visit our website: events.bl.uk
Discover more of our past events at our playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVRvouzCZmFeI-PSlsaLHzJwtEkKshATx&si=94-9DoaNCNTFAyQc
Speaker Bios:
Sam Bompas is the co-founder and executive creative director of Bompas & Parr. He spends his time developing ideas that are universally appealing, experientially compelling and highly press-worthy. Projects such as Alcoholic Architecture have had a reach of 3.7 billion and Symphony in Blue (for Johnnie Walker Blue Label) had a reach of over 3 billion. Sam has cultivated an extensive network of historians, chemists, artists, musicians, chefs, professional noses, inventors, stage illusionists, and pyrotechnicians who collaborate with Bompas & Parr to create genuine world firsts such as a fireworks show where you can taste the fireworks as they explode above your head.
Calum Cockburn is Curator of Medieval Manuscripts at the British Library, where he is responsible for the cataloguing and digitisation of pre-1600 manuscript material. His recent projects have focused on the application of multispectral imaging on burnt fragments from the Cotton library, and initiatives to digitise the library’s collection of Chaucer manuscripts and material relating to the lives of Medieval and Renaissance women. In 2024, he was part of the curatorial team behind the library’s exhibition Medieval Women: In Their Own Words. He serves as one of the editors of the Medieval Manuscripts blog.
Dubbed “The Pie King” by Jamie Oliver, Calum Franklin is an award-winning chef and author. Following his appointment as Executive head chef of Holborn Dining Room in 2014, Calum combined traditional cooking techniques with clever flavour combinations to create a contemporary British menu. In 2018, Calum opened Holborn Dining Room’s Pie Room, a treasure trove of savoury delicacies and intricate creations. He was awarded Olive Best Pastry Chef in 2018 and Best Hotel Chef in the UK at the Catey Awards in 2019. In 2019, he also released The Pie Room cookbook with Bloomsbury Publishing, which has featured in The Times, Wall Street Journal, The FT and more. In March 2024, Calum launched Public House, a grand British brasserie in the heart of Paris.
Dr Eleanor Janega is a medieval historian and broadcaster. She specialises in propaganda, apocalypticism, sexuality, empire, and the urban experience in the Middle Ages generally, and in late medieval central Europe in particular. Her work seeks to highlight the voices of common people, and to bring medieval society as a whole to light. Eleanor is the author of The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women’s Roles in Society and The Middle Ages: A Graphic History. Her work has appeared in Time, BBC History, The Washington Post, Slate and more. Eleanor is also the co-host of the Gone Medieval Podcast from History Hit.
Ian Kelly’s television series, Carême, an adaptation of his historical biography Cooking for Kings, launched on AppleTV in May 2025. He has written and presented a series of TV documentaries on food history, mainly focusing on Carême’s food-art. Other works include Mr Foote’s Other Leg (West End) The Painted Hall, Cooking for Kings (New York, Off Broadway) and Playing for Stalin. All his historical biographies (Beau Brummell, Casanova, Vivienne Westwood, Mr Foote, Carême) were written and researched in the British Library and have been adapted for stage, screen or ballet. As an actor, Ian’s work spans Merchant Ivory to the Harry Potter films and on stage from the West End, Broadway to the NT.
The British Library is a charity. Your support helps us open up a world of knowledge and inspiration for everyone. Donate today: support.bl.uk/Donate
This event, originally titled ‘Food and Spectacle: Medieval to Modern’, took place on 31 May 2025. The information below is correct as of the publication date.
Historians, chefs and food artists discussed the spectacular power and politics of food through the ages.
Live frogs leaping from a gigantic medieval pie, 12ft-high Royal wedding cakes, Georgian terrines shaped like Greek temples and the latest viral food TikTok - spectacle and food go hand in hand. Including elements of spectacle, this event used examples from the British Library’s manuscript collections, secrets from a professional kitchen and the story of the cook for kings who wished he was an architect, to delve into the past and look into the future to explore the meaning, politics and practices of food.
This event took place during Big Weekend of the British Library Food Season 2025, in partnership with Miele.
About Food Season Big Weekend:
The Big Weekend is the climax of the British Library Food Season. Our banquet of delights included panels exploring food from Eastern Europe, China, the US and Mexico and the way that Latin American sweet treats are at the heart of community.
To join more online and in person events visit our website: events.bl.uk
Discover more of our past events at our playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVRvouzCZmFeI-PSlsaLHzJwtEkKshATx&si=94-9DoaNCNTFAyQc
Speaker Bios:
Sam Bompas is the co-founder and executive creative director of Bompas & Parr. He spends his time developing ideas that are universally appealing, experientially compelling and highly press-worthy. Projects such as Alcoholic Architecture have had a reach of 3.7 billion and Symphony in Blue (for Johnnie Walker Blue Label) had a reach of over 3 billion. Sam has cultivated an extensive network of historians, chemists, artists, musicians, chefs, professional noses, inventors, stage illusionists, and pyrotechnicians who collaborate with Bompas & Parr to create genuine world firsts such as a fireworks show where you can taste the fireworks as they explode above your head.
Calum Cockburn is Curator of Medieval Manuscripts at the British Library, where he is responsible for the cataloguing and digitisation of pre-1600 manuscript material. His recent projects have focused on the application of multispectral imaging on burnt fragments from the Cotton library, and initiatives to digitise the library’s collection of Chaucer manuscripts and material relating to the lives of Medieval and Renaissance women. In 2024, he was part of the curatorial team behind the library’s exhibition Medieval Women: In Their Own Words. He serves as one of the editors of the Medieval Manuscripts blog.
Dubbed “The Pie King” by Jamie Oliver, Calum Franklin is an award-winning chef and author. Following his appointment as Executive head chef of Holborn Dining Room in 2014, Calum combined traditional cooking techniques with clever flavour combinations to create a contemporary British menu. In 2018, Calum opened Holborn Dining Room’s Pie Room, a treasure trove of savoury delicacies and intricate creations. He was awarded Olive Best Pastry Chef in 2018 and Best Hotel Chef in the UK at the Catey Awards in 2019. In 2019, he also released The Pie Room cookbook with Bloomsbury Publishing, which has featured in The Times, Wall Street Journal, The FT and more. In March 2024, Calum launched Public House, a grand British brasserie in the heart of Paris.
Dr Eleanor Janega is a medieval historian and broadcaster. She specialises in propaganda, apocalypticism, sexuality, empire, and the urban experience in the Middle Ages generally, and in late medieval central Europe in particular. Her work seeks to highlight the voices of common people, and to bring medieval society as a whole to light. Eleanor is the author of The Once and Future Sex: Going Medieval on Women’s Roles in Society and The Middle Ages: A Graphic History. Her work has appeared in Time, BBC History, The Washington Post, Slate and more. Eleanor is also the co-host of the Gone Medieval Podcast from History Hit.
Ian Kelly’s television series, Carême, an adaptation of his historical biography Cooking for Kings, launched on AppleTV in May 2025. He has written and presented a series of TV documentaries on food history, mainly focusing on Carême’s food-art. Other works include Mr Foote’s Other Leg (West End) The Painted Hall, Cooking for Kings (New York, Off Broadway) and Playing for Stalin. All his historical biographies (Beau Brummell, Casanova, Vivienne Westwood, Mr Foote, Carême) were written and researched in the British Library and have been adapted for stage, screen or ballet. As an actor, Ian’s work spans Merchant Ivory to the Harry Potter films and on stage from the West End, Broadway to the NT.
The British Library is a charity. Your support helps us open up a world of knowledge and inspiration for everyone. Donate today: support.bl.uk/Donate
