A Quick Word With Lady Fiona Carnarvon

The Lady of Highclere Castle, also known as the real-life Downton Abbey, on food, feasting and entertaining the Prince of Wales.

We still cook in the same kitchen at Highclere, which has been used for hundreds of years. It’s the same space but very differently adapted. There’s still a patisserie with a cold marble top and it’s the best place for making pastry. There are two game larders – we’ve turned one into a walk-in freezer and the other into a walk-in fridge. There was a smoking house just above the stove. They would put hay in there and smoke fish and meat. It was really well set up to feed a large household.

There were 100 gardeners in 1908. The cook would have gone up to the kitchen garden and would have given them a list of what she wanted for the day. In a larger house like this, you had 14 footmen, three butlers, the chefs, the under chefs, the sous chefs, the kitchen porters. You had a lot more support. And they prided themselves on the quality of the food.