King Charles and Queen Camilla are hosting an Italian-themed dinner, inspired by the actor Stanley Tucci, with dishes including crab, ravioli and pork, along with English and Italian wine.
Friday’s dinner, with guests including David and Victoria Beckham, Helen Mirren and Donatella Versace, is a culinary warm-up for the royal couple’s state visit to Italy and the Vatican in early April, where they will meet Pope Francis.
The trip is expected to coincide with Charles and Camilla’s 20th wedding anniversary and the King told dinner guests about his love of Italian food and culture.
“Good food brings people together and what we choose to eat helps to define us – as families, communities and nations,” said the King.
The UK-Italy dinner, hosted by the King and Queen at their Highgrove estate in Gloucestershire, and with the Italian ambassador to the UK, Inigo Lambertini, is a celebration of “slow food”, which uses fresh local food and traditional cooking methods.
The King hailed this “most splendid evening which brings together two things very dear to my heart – slow food and Italy”.
“A nation’s food culture is a priceless social and environmental asset, intimately bound up with its sense of identity and place,” said the King.
An enthusiast for art, culture and religion, he spoke of his enthusiasm for the state visit, which will be his 18th official visit to the country.
“To say that we are looking forward to it would be to engage in a little British understatement,” he joked to diners, including Stanley Tucci, who inspired the choice of food.
The reception and dinner menu, cooked by Calabrian chef Francesco Mazzei, features Italian recipes with British ingredients. It was accompanied by English sparkling wine and Italian red and white wines.
Reception:
Rare and pasture salumi
Tuscan-style paté and coppa
Yorkshire pecorino cheese puffs
British vegetables caponata tartelletta
with Highgrove sparkling wine
Dinner:
Scottish crab panzanella
Westcombe ricotta and Highgrove fine herbs ravioli
Isle of Wight tomato passata
Suffolk Red porchetta
Pumpkin and sage mash, Tuscan kale
with white wine Gavi dei Gavi La Scolca Black label 2023 and red wine Barbaresco Gaja 2021
Zuppa Inglese and biscotti
with a red dessert wine, Recioto della Valpolicella Classico Zenato
King Charles said of the combined culinary efforts of chef Mazzei and Tucci: “I can only hope they are still talking to each other at the end of it all!”
Cocktails were made by “mixologist” Alessandro Palazzi, using herbs from the gardens at Highgrove.
There was a toast made by the King in Italian, “alla eterna cultura italiana del buon cibo,” meaning “to Italy’s timeless food culture”.
This dinner comes ahead of the state visit in early April, confirmed on Thursday by Buckingham Palace.
There will be engagements in Rome and Ravenna, with the King and Queen set to hold meetings with Pope Francis and Italian political leaders.
