In the Moscow museums-reserves, you can not only walk with children in the parks, but also visit educational interactive programs. Which ones exactly-Irina Romanova studied.
Katya sat down on the very edge of the chair, tucked two books under her arms so as not to put her elbows far away, and tried to cut a piece of meat on the plate. A couple of hours ago on a tour in the museum-reserve “Tsaritsyno” she learned that this was how the children of the nobility were taught to behave at the table in eighteenth-century Russia.
Today, almost all Moscow museums and nature reserves have various game programs for children. So, in the museum-estate “Kuzminki” guides introduce kids to the daily life of children of the XIX century: games, holidays, studies (programs “Peasant children”, “Walks with a governess”, “Life of the old house”). In the Arkhangelsk Estate Museum» Russian russians are taught how to paint porcelain, and in the Izmailovo Museum-Reserve they tell about how the Russian regular army was created, and treat them to soldiers ‘ porridge and pies (“A Tale about War, Antiquity, the Russian Soldier and Human Mercy”). I live with my children in the neighborhood of the Tsaritsyno Museum-reserve. We often walk in the Tsaritsyn Park, but somehow it turned out that we have never been to the Grand Palace or the Opera House. So when did we find out that the museum offers three interactive programs for children: “Are you going to the ball?”, “The hour of masquerade pleasure” and “Dinner is served, Your Majesty! — – the daughters lit up:” Let’s go!»
Of course, the children most of all wanted to attend a real masquerade. But since Katya was five and a half at the time, and Lisa was two and a half, we chose an hour-long program for preschoolers “Are you going to the ball?». Having gathered the kids in the hall of the Visit Center, the guide showed two dolls in Rococo dresses and told how it was customary to dress for the ball. Then the boys put on their cocked hats, the girls decorated their hair with flowers, and together they formed a carriage: the postilions on wooden horses in front, the coachman behind them, the footmen behind, the ladies in the center — and, after a couple of circles around the hall, they found themselves in the XVIII century, at a ball. In those days, the main dance of the balls was the minuet. The kids learned a few steps: a step, another step, a bow, a curtsy… The boys, as always, were not enough, so I had to dance with Katya-for the cavalier.
But more than dancing, the children liked the games — as it turned out, three centuries ago it was customary to play at balls: for example, in the forfeits or in the “stream”. We played live pictures. After examining the ladies and gentlemen treating each other to apples on a reproduction of a painting by Antoine Watteau, the kids sorted out the props — straw hats, baskets, artificial fruits and flowers — and froze in similar poses. At parting, we made a fan — paper, painted with paints.
According to the custom of the gallant age, the ball was followed by dinner. But we got to it only after a year and a half, having visited the excursion ” Eat served, Your Majesty». This is a program for children aged 7-12, it lasts almost two hours and takes place in two buildings at once: the Third Cavalry Corps and the Grand Palace.
– Table etiquette appears only in the age of Enlightenment, – says the museum guide. — Before Peter I, there were no rules of behavior at the table. Many dishes, such as game, were eaten with their hands, and then their hands were wiped on the tablecloth.
Round hall on the second floor of the 3rd Cavalry Corps. Between the columns are easels with still lifes. On the back of the chair is a brocade doublet and a frill. The guide pulls back the screen, and before us is a table set according to all the rules of the XVIII century. A white tablecloth, waxed so that the spilled sauce does not leave stains. Porcelain service, crystal and silver. In the center of the table is an elegant figure — the motto of the holiday, and the menu, which at the ceremonial imperial dinners was designed by the court artist. Behind it are dishes of game and fish, vases of fruit. And next to the small vases with clay dummies of apples, pears and grapes — as the guide said, Peter I liked to make fun of the drunk guests, offering them such a decoy instead of fruit.
The children had to set the exact same table. The students dressed up in camisoles and frills, chose the chief marshal-the chief manager of the palace economy, architects and cooks. The other children became guests. And the work began to boil. The architects made a large square table out of four shields. The girls covered it with a tablecloth and decorated it with flowers. The cooks in the kitchen were playing tricks on the dishes: they were lining rubber chickens with plastic lemons and cauliflower, and laying a bed of lettuce for sturgeon. My daughter Katya helped the cooks-it was her idea to decorate the pig’s head with a bunch of strawberries.
Finally, it’s time for the table, the gentlemen invite the ladies — in this part of the program, the children laugh the most. Of course! None of the boys know how to give a lady a gallant hand. None of the girls know how to respond to this gallantry. The guide, like a choreographer, corrects their backs, shoulders, raises their noses. He explains how to sit at the table: on the edge of a chair — so as not to crumple your clothes, pressing your elbows to your body — so as not to interfere with the next lady in a crinoline, cutting food on a plate with a knife and fork — so as not to dirty your lush lace cuffs, and wiping your hands on a napkin tucked into your collar. The only archaism of etiquette: if the cavalier wanted to say a toast, he was supposed to stand up and tap his knife on the glass to attract the attention of the guests. Now such a ringing would be considered rude.
At the end of the tour, we go to the Grand Palace, where on the third floor there is an exhibition “The Ceremonial table of the era of Catherine the Great: the triumph of the culinary era”. Pheasants with two heads in full plumage, sturgeon napping on the waves of champagne and carrots, “Bomba” cutlet made of different types of meat…
– At dinner parties, the chefs tried to impress the guests as much as possible, – says the guide. — A piglet, for example, was prepared as follows: half-coated with liquid dough and put in the oven. Then the dough was removed, and it turned out that half of the piglet was pink, and half was brown. The guests were surprised: how is that? And boiled and fried at the same time?!
But the main decoration of the imperial table was piecemontee-multi-tiered sculptures made of sugar, marzipan and protein mass, whipped with sugar and lemon juice. For the exhibition in Tsaritsyn, piecemontee was specially prepared by the French pastry chef Laurent Boursier, taking as a basis engravings from the cookbook of the late VXIII century by Urban Dubois. Our gallant ancestors called this beauty “royal ice cream”, but they did not eat — sweet towers and palaces served only to decorate the table.
At the end of the program, the guide gives the children leaves with recipes of dishes of the XVIII century. We get the “Cancer Neck Soup”. “Boil 50 live crayfish in meat broth. Clean the paws and claws, chop them up and mix with the same amount of minced veal and crab oil. Stuff the minced cancer shells. In the meat broth, put different white roots (celery, parsley, parsnips) and, after cooking a little, cut them into small pieces. Boil the stuffed crayfish shards, distribute them on plates. When serving, add pieces of boiled sturgeon or beluga, – reads Katya. And hopefully asks: Will we do it?»