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Watch King Henry II take
delivery of his medieval pizza

by Graham Tutthill

So what’s a King supposed to do when he feels peckish and he’s
had enough of the usual fare prepared by his kitchen staff?

Well, in the case of Henry II during a visit to Dover Castle on
Tuesday, it was time to send out for a pizza.

The people of medieval England may not have been familiar with
this particular type of take-away, but it is believed that in other
parts of the world cooks had been preparing a variety of toppings
on a bread crust for many years. And Henry wanted to try it.

So a decree was issued, the order was placed, and, behold, a man
on a typical pizza delivery moped arrived at the castle to deliver
the food to His Majesty.

It was all part of a research project, being carried out by
English Heritage, to find out what would most likely have been used
for pizza toppings had they been around in Henry II’s day when he
was at the castle.

Researchers joined
forces with Pizza Hut to bring back some the tastes of the time,
with medieval variations of three of the country’s most popular
pizzas.

A classic Hawaiian pizza became Henry II’s Hawaiian with tasty
boar and fig in place of ham and pineapple, the Dover Castle Meat
Feast included the powerful flavours of mutton, goat and pigeon,
whilst the Fishy Surprise replaced tomato sauce with authentic
medieval green sauce, including parsley, mint, sorrel and chives,
topped off with eel.

Visitors at the castle have been taking part in a tasting
session, after which the most popular pizza would be added to the
menu at weekends for the rest of the month.

Full story and more photos in this week's Dover
Mercury.