A cook for every guest

We expect kings to make less of a mess than a mess. We imagine a carefree life of abundance , lavish banquet tables and roast chickens flying into open mouths. Of course it wasn't that extravagant, at least not every day. Frederick the Great 's daily routine, for example, was very strictly scheduled: after morning coffee, the regent devoted himself to playing the flute, the cabinet councilors appeared at 9 a.m. and he gave audiences from 10 to 11 a.m. At 12 sharp we were asked to have lunch, which usually lasted three hours. Friedrich's dinner parties of seven to ten guests were famous; conversation took place here in French, while 12 cooks looked after the guests' physical well-being in the court kitchen. Hearty and hearty dishes were the king's favorites - probably much to the chagrin of his doctors: cabbage, ham, eel pie, celery soup, anchovies, pickles, pastries and polenta. The spicier, the better.

Wine and prejudice

Until coffee, Frederick II devoted himself to making music and his correspondence, and then received guests again. From 6 p.m. the evening round table took place, again in a manageable circle, because large banquets with up to 1000 people were also an exception for the king. The wine served was, how could it be otherwise, of French origin, usually a Bergerac or Bordeaux . Rhine wines were not allowed into the king's glasses because he blamed them for his father's gout: “If you want to get a taste of being hanged, you don't have to do anything other than drink Rhine wine,” he is said to have once said. – How ironic that he himself later died as a man suffering from gout .

The king's favorite service

To the extent that he brought bad publicity to the wine of the Rhine region, Frederick the Great was a lover of porcelain . When he acquired the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in 1763, he became his own best customer. From 1774 onwards, dishes made of white gold replaced the silver plates that had been common in the castle until then. His favorite service was the NEUZIERAT designed by Friedrich Elias Meyer in 1767. The elegant relief of leaf tendrils, flowers and rocailles on the flag artfully framed the delicacies on the plates. What's special about it: The coloring of gold and the matt blue shade that Friedrich loved so much, Bleu mourant , which means something like "dying blue" - a term that is reminiscent of the slightly bluish complexion of people who get dizzy and from which the winged developed the word “blümerant”.

In the pure white version, NEUZIERAT, whose shape has remained unchanged to this day, has survived all eras. If you too want to dine like Frederick the Great, this service will give your table at home a graceful shine . Which of the royal menu would you rather serve: cabbage soup à la fouqué with partridge and bacon or English-style chicken with stuffed cucumber?