Marc Meltonville Consultant, Food Historian
Historic Menus,
Event Consultancy,
Practical experimentation,
Research & Presentations.
People ask me, "Why do you work in Food History?"
and I say, "Food connects us to the past in a way other things can't. Food links to wealth, status, trade, exploration, religion even prejudice.
We all eat, so let's start our story there!"
Marc Meltonville FSA
Marc is a Food and Drink Historian looking at the stories of how we have dined over the centuries.
He works for universities, restaurants, museums and a number of private clients, researching, lecturing and carrying out practical experiments.
Much of his work is menu research, bringing old dishes back for chefs to turn into modern fine dining.
For the last ten years Marc has been at the forefront of historic drink recreations, Colonial Ales and Whisky in America. Tudor beer in England and Ireland.
It is safe to say that Marc is the best Heritage distiller in the UK, and as far as we know, the only one too.
For over twenty-five years Marc was a Food historian for the Historic Royal Palaces.
Based at Hampton court Palace, London, he worked on recreating food in the famous Tudor kitchens of King Henry the Eighth. Further work saw him bring to life the Royal Kitchens at Kew Palace and the Chocolate Kitchen of King George II.
In his time with the Royal Palaces Marc delivered presentations at Hampton Court, The Tower of London, Banqueting House, Kew Palace, Hillsborough Castle, Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace.
The world of food history has taken Marc all over the world, delivering presentations and projects across the Americas, Europe and a far away as Japan.
Originally trained in ceramic form and function Marc has also worked for a number of building and local history museums and one associated almost entirely with the history of the Windsor chair.
Working as a Consultant Food Historian Marc has been involved with many projects at numerous sites.
Marc is currently involved with several historic brewing and distilling projects that look at the recipes and techniques from the 16th and 18th Centuries.
In 2018 he worked with a team to bring to life the food of 4500 years ago at the event, 'Big Feast at Stonehenge'.
2021 saw the start of an exciting project with Trinity College Dublin, to build and test a Tudor brewery which entered phase two in 2024.
In 2026 the beer will be available at Dublin Castle
Spring 2025 saw a return to the Distillery at Mount Vernon in Virginia to make whisky like they did in 1799.
2026 sees the start of a very exciting project to make a Gin from 1689.
Presentation and Lectures
As an Historian Marc has spent much of my working life giving lectures and presentations.
He admits that he is very happy in front of an audience and definitely has his own style of presenting. A member of the BBC once described him as "England's only Stand-up Historian" which he takes as a great compliment.
Marc says that, “We remember the things when enjoy ourselves and I hope that my talks have been enjoyed over the years.”
Clients have included, museums, universities, history groups large and small, numerous conferences across the globe, great houses, small houses, and many Palaces.
Marc regularly lectures for the Winterthur Museum & Gardens, PA, Trinity Collage Dublin and the Kings Gallery, Buckingham Palace.
Marc is a regular on TV and Radio, both in the UK and across the world.
Events
Events that I will be attending that are open to the public.
Most events listed below require an entry fee to the site in question.
Please check the host organisation’s website for details.
Events at Universities, museums and societies where the event is only open to members or students are not listed.
2026
February
The continuing Tudor Brew Experiment in conjunction with Trinity College Dublin, working with Weald & Downland Living Museum; and Canvas Brewery, Tipperary, Ireland.
A 1574 Beer will be available from Dublin Castle in February 2026.
Paper published; Historical Journal, Cambridge University.
February - June
Historic Life weekends at the Weald & Downland Living Museum
Come and see Marc live at these museum events, cooking, demonstrating, or just chatting about old buildings.
7th & 8th March; 18th century farmhouse life.
21st & 22nd March; brewing in the Tudor kitchen. Ales and Beers.
18th & 19th April; TBC
2nd & 3rd May; 18th century farmhouse life.
30th & 31st May; 18th century farmhouse life.
13th & 14th June; Tudor Summer Brewing.
27th & 28th June; Jellies and Jelly making in the dairy.
Other Sites
Dublin Castle
February. Launch of the 1574 Tudor recipe Beer along with short presentations about the project. A talk and a pint!
Marc is currently the resident Food Historian at the Handel & Hendrix House, Brook Street, London.
Demonstration weekends and Saturday evening ticketed presentations.
May 23rd & 24th
September 12th & 13th
November 21st & 22nd
Leeds Food symposium; York, UK
24th April; Marc will be speaking about the galley kitchen on the Mary Rose, Tudor warship.
12th – 14th May; Marc will be based at the Pewterers’ Hall, Oat Lane, London.
Come along and discover 2000 years of Pewter smithing. Free entry.
Publications
The Tavern Cook
18th century cookery through the recipes of Richard Briggs.
Published by Prospect books.
In 1788 Richard Briggs, sometime cook at the Globe Tavern, Fleet Street, London, published his cookery book, The English Art of Cookery.
It was a lengthy tome, over 700 pages of recipes from a man who cooked, not in a Palace, castle or stately home, but in the Taverns of London. His cookery was managed in a small kitchen with limited equipment.
You can manage it too!
I became interested in Brigg’s recipes whilst working at the Royal Kitchens at Kew Palace, Kew Gardens.
In this world of easy access and download I could not see any reason to publish a facsimile of his book. You can get a copy from many sources, but what I wanted to write was a guide to it.
The Tavern Cook describes the cookery of Richard Briggs and gives you an insight into the techniques and meanings of 18th century cookery. I describe my search for the man himself, the cook, husband and father.
I explore the London around the Taverns he cooked in and the way of dining in a tavern.
Use this book to create a Georgian supper for your friends and family.
I am sure you will dine very well.
Recent publications
The Power of Taste; Europe at the Royal Table
Published by Museum of the Palace of Wilanow
Taste the fire; Henry VIII’s kitchens of Hampton Court
Published by Historic Royal palaces.
Kew Palace Guidebook
Published by Historic Royal palaces.
Children’s Books
The Swashbuckler Series
with illustrator John Lang.
Published by Ginn & Co
Haunted Ralph Series
Published by Mary Glasgow.
The adventures of Morris Digby
Published by Collins.
There are rumours of a novel. Well, there are now!
Recipe Research & Menu Design
Recreating historic dishes and the drinks to go with them might sound simple but it involves extensive research and testing is you or your clients really would like a taste of the past.
Marc and his team have access to over 300 cookery books and manuscripts that span the last 2000 years.
Marc has undertaken simple projects to write a paper on an ingredient or a style of dish, tracking its history over the century.
Other clients have asked for a full meal to be recreated for them, an 18th Century one for the launch of the book ‘Feast’ or a meal inspired by the travels of Queen Victoria held at Kensington Palace. Within the City of London Marc put together a meal from the time of Queen Anne.
A fun project is when we get asked to design a set of canapés from a period in history. They are a great way of introducing people to historic food in a non-challenging way.
I have made canapés that represented a mediaeval meal for the Tower of London to a dinner served to King George III at Kew Palace and lots in between.
Several restaurant groups have used Marc to research and design recipe from the past that can be brought forward for the modern diner.
Including; The Fat Duck Group, Bacchanalia London, Wonderland Restaurants, and Art Farm.
Puzzle Jug
The Puzzle jug Project is a group of like-minded individuals that enjoy trying to recreate drinks from the pages of history.
We are always looking for projects that want to research and recreate a range of Historic drinks.
Since 2021 we have worked with FoodCult, based at trinity College Dublin, to look at the brewing of Tudor beer, by building a Tudor Brewery.
This beer goes on sale in 2026.
We now have the equipment to run recipe tests for brewing or distilling from Roman Britian to the end of the 18th century.
Training in America with Master Distiller Dave Pickerell of Makers Mark and Whistle Pig, Marc has learned the art of wood fired pot distilling.
In 2024 Marc became a certified Bourbon Steward through the Kentucky Bourbon association.
In the UK Marc mostly works on Gins.
2026 sees an exciting project to create a gin from a recipe from 1698.
