The King Prajadhipok Museum is hosting the "From Palace Kitchens To Today's Eateries" exhibition, which will move to other venues nationwide until the end of November.
The objective is to disseminate knowledge and better understanding of palace food culture during the reign of King Prajadhipok (Rama VII, 1893-1941) and the development of royal delicacies.
The exhibition showcases King Rama VII and Queen Rambhai Barni's royal dinnerware, menus, models and food pictures, especially dishes eaten at their Sukhodaya Palace and Suan Klai Kangwon summer palace. It also features a series of talks and seminars on palace kitchens and recipes during the Seventh Reign. The moderator is academic and culture expert Tongthong Chandrangsu.
Palace food or royal cuisine has similar basic characteristics as commoner food, but differs in terms of its artistic quality. Palace food culture from the late Fifth Reign (King Rama V's era) to the end of the Seventh Reign (King Rama VII's era) evolved to combine the taste and characteristics of Thai and Western delicacies due to contacts between Siam and foreign nations.
The tradition continued due to the major roles of princesses and royal court ladies in creating and developing a unique food culture. Starting from the early Rattanakosin Period, princesses as well as daughters of senior officials who became palace ladies played big roles in creating palace food under the supervision and support of several princesses.
After several of those princesses moved out of the Grand Palace to live in their own palaces, they applied their cooking skills, practised and honed while at the Grand Palace, to create recipes which could only be found in their kitchens. Later, those royal recipes spread to the circle of bureaucrats and developed into a variety of neatly prepared royal dishes.
Following the 1932 revolution when Siam underwent a transition from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy, more princesses opted to run food-related businesses by using the knowledge and skills they had learned while in the Grand Palace. Some of the cooks and assistants, who worked in the palaces, earned a living making and selling palace food, providing opportunities for laypeople to try royal delicacies.
The King Prajadhipok Museum on Lan Luang Road is open from Tuesdays to Sundays, 9am-4pm. Admission is free. Call 02-280-3413/4, ext 111 or 105.
