Join us on Sunday March 9 for our final behind the scenes floor talk at Eat your history: a shared table at Museum of Sydney at 2pm. The Cook and the Curator will take you through the exhibition and reveal some of the quirkier elements of the displays.

Spoiling the broth?

We don’t want to spoil things but this might give you a taste: One of the more curious stories in the exhibition is about jelly making, 1860s style, with a video of yours truly attempting Mrs Beeton’s recipe for making gelatine from calf’s feet (not for the faint hearted or queasy).

An ‘epic fail’

All in a day’s work for the Cook and the Curator! But things don’t always go to plan. Not only did the big black iron pot ‘explode’ during filming – its base split with a resounding CRACK! sending three litres of painstakingly prepared jelly cascading over the kitchen floor – but our attempts to release a decoratively set jelly from its mould was, in my children’s terminology, an epic fail! Fortunately we had an extra supply of ‘raw’ jelly from an earlier batch, but the ‘here’s one we prepared earlier’ for the grand finale was irretrievable.

Taking note

It’s always good to know that your audience is taking note, as this youngster’s report seems to attest: