The principal research topics which I work on are the manufacturing methodology of medieval bread, fuel and firewood in the sixteenth century, and the use of meat and roasting within the court of King Henry VIII. I also find myself presenting and speaking on the topic of authenticity of reproduction more and more as time goes on. Work within the Kitchens as well as work on these principal topics also throws up other research avenues that I’ll eventually find an 8th or 9th day in a week to follow up on. I’m also
Currently most of the conference presentations I have given can be found on Academia.edu or click on the links below to read them here.
Presentations, papers and chapters include:
Esther van Raamsdonk, Kirsty Rolfe, Rachel Willie, Richard Fitch and Sjoerd Levelt, ‘Schimmel en wormen’, in Kaas=NL? (Sterck & De Vreese, 2023).
Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals. Vol 16, issue 1, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/1550190620903306 “It Feels Like You Have Stepped Back in Time”: Implementing Authenticity Research in Henry VIII’s Kitchens at Hampton Court Palace A. Pierce, D Jackson, R. Fitch, A. Manning
5th International Convention on Food History and Food Studies IEHCA, Tours, (2019): How authentic is authentic? Reconstructing the Kitchens of King Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace.
2nd Global Conference on Food, Heritage and Community, An Inclusive Interdisciplinary Conference, Prague (2019): Cookery lessons: Viewing the past through the lens of reconstructing food and cookery techniques from history.
CRASSH Embodies Things, Histories of Cognition, Practices and Theories. Food. (2017): Cooking the Books: A cautionary tale of material culture and the recreation of historic recipes for public viewing.
Kitchens in Britain and Europe 1500-1950, Senate House London (January 2017): Kitchens are for cooking in – the modern use of the historic kitchens at Hampton Court Palace.
International Medieval Congress, Leeds (2016): Wastel, Cocket and Treyt: Some experimental investigations into the manufacturing methodology of certain medieval breads.
Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery (2015): Dinner Isn’t Served! : The use of historic cookery as a method of interacting with visitors to Hampton Court Palace. in McWilliams M. ed. Food and Communication: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2015, pp 185-192, Prospect Books, July 2016
9th Experimental Archaeology Conference, UCD Dublin (2015): Half Baked: can the experimental process help us towards a reconstruction of medieval bread?
82nd Anglo-American Conference of Historians Food in History (2013): “Our Ech Day Bread” : Reconstructing Medieval Bread.
International Medieval Congress, Leeds (2011): Experiments, education and entertainment: the opportunities and problems with historical cookery demonstrations at historic sites.
Langford Food industry Conference (2010): Meat and status. An historical look at meat in the English diet.
Proceedings of the 2002 ALHFAM Annual Meeting, People and Place, Making Connections, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Volume XXV 2003, pp44 – 48: Connections: Forethought in Interpretation. R. Fitch, R. Hoare, J. M. Meltonville and R. Mitchener