Infrastructure

One thing that quickly became apparent as we started to get to grips with this project was that, no matter how good the Middle Kingdoms-sourced recipe, if you try photographing it on modern-Earth plates, it just looks silly.

So for food photography in this project, we wanted to gather together a collection of tableware and utensils that would fulfill the following conditions:

• Either handmade, or machine-made with aesthetic irregularities
• A rough congruence to dishes and utensils available and in common use during roughly the mid-1300s to mid-1500s in our Earth’s European regions
• Materials varying according to the users’ varying circumstances and venues, from the urban to the rural and from casual to formal use

To satisfy these requirements we’ve pulled together various “service sets” meant to evoke all kinds of eating venues — from what might be found in a farmhouse kitchen, to what would show up on the table in a a country tavern or a city cookhouse, and a setting or two that might turn up in a noble or royal household.

Each person or company we’ve acquired equipment from has its own page at our site. In cases where the provider has a website of its own, we’ll link you to it. Most of our sources are small businesses: if you like what they’re doing, please support them!