
CORONATION BANQUET MENUS
Tsars of Russia

Tsar Alexander III
23 May 1883
Midnight supper at the Kremlin for the Diplomatic Corp, Senators and Generals.

Tsar Alexander III
24 May 1883
Dinner at the Kremlin for foreign Princes, Chiefs of Special Missions and Senators.

Tsar Alexander III
27 May 1883
Banquet at the Kremlin for the Sacred Coronation of Their Imperial Majesties.

Tsar Nicholas II
23 May 1896
Gala dinner at the Kremlin marking the official proclamation of the Coronation.

Tsar Nicholas II
26 May 1896
Banquet at the Kremlin for the Sacred Coronation of Their Imperial Majesties.
The Tsesarevich's 16th birthday
Twelve years before his Coronation, Nicholas II celebrated his 16th birthday to great imperial fanfare. The day marked the coming-of-age for the Tsesarevich and made him eligible to inherit the throne. His parents, Tsar Alexander III and Tsarina Maria Fyodorovna, hosted this gala dinner at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. Stuffed salmon-trouts baked in red wine were garnished with sautéed roe, truffles and poached crayfish as a precursor to dainty pastries filled with lark’s breasts and platters of roast woodcocks, great snipe and prized ducklings from Rouen.
The Tsesarevich
19 May 1884
Gala dinner at the Winter Palace for the Tsesarevich's 16th birthday.
Princely House of Yusupov
26th January 1893
Grand banquets of Russia's Princely House of Yusupov.
Princely House of Yusupov
Before their name became synonymous with the murder of Rasputin, the Princely House of Yusupov was associated with some of the most decadent banquets of imperial Russia. The beautiful Princess Zinaida serves guests a soup garnished with the poached marrow from the spine of a sturgeon before platters of spit-roasted ortolans arrive smothered in creamed watercress.
Imperial Chef, Pierre Cubat
"Cubat was a most interesting person, late
head chef to the Czar, whose service he had only just left. When asked the reason, he said that the supervision in the kitchen of the royal palace was so irksome and stringent — dozens of detectives watching his every gesture and pouncing on every pinch of salt — that the salary of £2,000 a year did not compensate him".
Lady Randolph Churchill
1908
Formal Palace' Dinners
Menu cards from the Winter Palace, Peterhof, Gatchina and Alexander Palace
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