Dine with Shakespeare!

Come for an evening of
English culture and hear the pop music of Shakespeare’s day, followed by a talk
on the foods of Elizabethan England! 

Wren will open the show with
lively tunes and ballads, including ancient folk and dance tunes, sea songs,
and other diverse music. The band includes Shawna Sellin, a former winner of
the All-Ireland Harp Contest, along with her husband Mark Sellin and Vickie
Goodglick, Joyce Nunamaker, Sam Danielson, and Rachel Schlosser.  Their
debut album was voted the LA Critics Awards  “Best Folk Album of 2012”.
Wren will have a brief show and tell session for children at which they will
explain the unusual and archaic instruments they play. 

Following Wren, culinary
historian and author Richard Foss will talk on “Dining with William
Shakespeare,” an introduction to the diet, manners, and cooking of the
Elizabethan era. Shakespeare’s world was one of expanding horizons, of
once-costly spices suddenly available to the growing middle class, and food in
his era was very different from the modern diet in either England or America. Foss will discuss dishes
that are delightful, disgusting, or odd that appeared on tables from the lowest
peasant to the most noble aristocrats, and the ways that Elizabethans expressed
their creativity and social standing with food. 

Richard Foss has been a food
journalist covering the greater Los Angelers area since 1986, and has taught
food and beverage history classes and lectured all over the county. He is the
California Curator for the Museum of the American Cocktail and a Board Member
of the Culinary Historians of Southern California. His first book, “Rum: A
Global History.” was released in 2012, and another book will be out this fall
on the history of food in flight from the Montgolfier balloon era and zeppelins
to the space station.