Funeral Food to Die For

17 May

Funeral food and drink are not much discussed, but are vital for not only sustaining the living, but also celebrating the dead. The topic was however in the limelight recently as Nelson Bros, Australia’s oldest family-owned funeral business (est. 1858), opened their chapel and coffin room for a cross-cultural panel on death and dining.

As the horse-drawn hearse and funerary Rolls Royce pulled up, the crowd was awkward and quiet. No one knew quite how to behave at a funeral home without someone to bury.

The strange tension was broken as speakers from different faiths discussed the traditions and taboos linking food, drink, and death. It’s a subject normally discussed in private at a time of need; so an open conversation was enlightening, and revealed many universal themes.
 
Elizabeth Chong, a culinary hero in Australia, spoke about Chinese funerary feasts. They consist of seven courses – the death number – with the family of the deceased going strictly vegetarian; thoughts of mortality mean that eating animal flesh would be in bad taste. Here’s a word of advice: avoid eating seven course meals at Chinese restaurants in non-death situations.

Adam Samuel of Temple Beth Israel told us about the Jewish traditions, with round rolls, bagels and hard-boiled eggs representing the cyclical nature of life. The egg is particularly significant: it’s the first thing eaten after the funeral by mourners. We were told that “it has no mouth”, and so represents the mourner in shock. The number seven also had resonance, as it is the number of days of ‘shiva’ – the process of mourning where immediate family and friends are called on to make meals for the bereaved.

Sweet food and drink are another common theme; sweetness supposedly takes away the bitter taste of death. George Haramlambopoulous, Greek Orthodox sermoniser and head sommelier at Werribee Park Mansion spoke about Commandaria – the world’s oldest recorded wine still in production, first produced by Knights Templar. Supposedly the first thing that the Virgin Mary drank after the crucifixion (along with olives and pita), the wine is still consumed at Greek Orthodox funerals.
 
Anglo Saxon tradition also favours sweet wines like Madeira. Madeira should rarely be served at breakfast. One exception is at funerals, where tradition, alcohol as a rite of passage, and the need for a drink make it a welcome change from orange juice. I first discovered this when we were initially asked to do the catering for a number of funerals. Looking into Christian funeral dishes we discovered funeral cakes, a long forgotten element of the funeral ceremony and a macabre mirror to the pervasive wedding cake. In the past, funeral cakes - which were much like shortbread - were served with a glass of Madeira. Two young women called ‘servers’ distributed the cakes, walking at the head of the funeral procession. The cakes were traditionally wrapped in black crepe paper and moulded to depict motifs such as skulls, hearts, and roses. This wrapper could be printed with thrillingly grim verse – well documented by food historian Peter Briers in his 1984 study of 19th Century Yorkshire Funerary Food:

When ghastly Death with unrelenting hand,
Cuts down a father! brother! or a friend!
The still small voice should make you understand,
How frail you are - how near your final end.

(Apparently being handed the wrapped funeral cake could be the first notice you had of a friend’s death.)

The afternoon at Nelson Bros managed to avoid descending into ghoulishness as it was organised and presented with tact. The cross-cultural take on funeral food was celebratory and informative. There was a real desire to talk openly about the subject. This proved so inspiring that one member of the audience even booked his own funeral service! The event left us all thinking about what food and drink we would like served at our funerals. I personally will make the Madeiras mandatory.

"Here's a word of advice: avoid eating seven course meals at Chinese restaurants in non-death situations"

"Madeira should rarely be served at breakfast. One exception is at funerals"