Royal Pavilion and Brighton Museums app

The Great Kitchen was one of the first areas to be completed in 1816 as part of John Nash’s reconstruction of the Royal Pavilion. The kitchen was designed to be innovative and modern for its day. Its facilities offered

• constant supply of water pumped from a nearby well into the Royal Pavilion’s own water tower
• an impressive ventilation and illumination system of twelve high windows.

The Great Kitchen was not without its own ‘taste of the Orient’. Four cast-iron columns, ornamented with painted copper palm leaves, support the ceiling.

A kitchen to be seen

A kitchen so close to the Banqueting Room was unusual for the day. It gave George IV the opportunity to impress his guests with his new facilities and he often escorted his guests around the Great Kitchen as part of his tour of the state apartments.

A room dedicated to haute cuisine

The Great Kitchen and the Banqueting Room are separated by the Table Deckers’ Room. Here, footmen collected the dishes for presentation to George IV and his guests at the Banqueting Room table.

The great chef Antonin Carême

George IV had always admired French arts and culture, both visual and culinary. He was obsessed with food and dining and wanted to employ the very best French chefs. He needed a chef who would appreciate and work well in his modern Great Kitchen. Also someone capable of producing the extravagant and ostentatious banquets that were so fashionable at the time – and that George so loved hosting.

A short-term contract

Unfortunately Carême could not be persuaded to stay long in George’s employment and he returned to France in 1817.