Another Oxford Literary festival, another literary festival dinner. Like previous events, this year’s dinner will take place in the Great Hall at Christ Church.

Like previous events, this year’s dinner will take place in the Great Hall at Christ Church. The theme this year will be A Celebration of Anglo-Indian Cookery, which is apt given that more than half the Viceroys of India attended Christ Church. The Indian food writer Madhur Jaffrey is the after-dinner speaker.

Food historian Anne Menzies has once again masterminded the menu. She has worked tirelessly to come up with a four-course meal that befits the event and is as historically accurate as possible.

A prestigious dinner like this takes time to perfect as everything has to be balanced in terms of taste, texture, colour and interest.

Getting the strength of spicing right is important, too, as many of the spices used add a fragrance to the dish rather than an aggressive heat. Anne explained that in the 17th century there were actually many similarities between English and Indian cuisine, as spices such as cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, once the preserve of the wealthy, became more accessible and affordable as a consequence of the Portuguese breaking the Arab monopoly of the spice trade in 1611.

In compiling the menu Anne looked out for interesting names and dishes that were eaten over the 400 years between King Charles II and the arrival of Viceroys and the housewife at some lonely hill station intent on imposing ‘home standards’. She also called on her own experience as a hotel and catering student in the 1970s, when she worked in the Ashoka Hotel, in New Delhi.

Anne still remembers the vast kitchen, the men working in the deep-freeze area making massive ice carvings and others creating sweets and desserts, while ten chefs did nothing other than make samosas.

“I was privileged to work with the Chef de Cuisine, M. Moncourt, and followed him round all day. By the end of my time, I was let off the lead and allowed to mix my own spices,” she said.

On her days off, Anne would visit Indian friends who would serve a spiced meal, but the sweet would invariably be the Queen of Puddings. She remembers thinking at the time how comfortably the British and Indian cuisine sat together.

Having created a working menu, Anne then began testing the recipe dishes herself. “I cook each dish at least twice, though sometimes it can take five attempts to get it right. Each recipe has to work, not just for me, but for Christ Church’s executive head chef Chris Simms and his brigade, who will be producing the dish in large numbers.”

As the cooked food has to be transported from the basement kitchen of the college to the first floor, Anne has to ensure that it can travel easily without breaking up along the way, too.

The pre-dinner drinks include Eye Opener Punch à la Durbar served with canapés. Punch is an Indian drink that goes back more than 2,000 years. Its name is derived from the Hindi word for five, which is the number of its ingredients: a spirit, sugar, citrus juice, water and spices.

This punch, based on a fruity sparkling rosé wine, was served at the 1911 Deli Durbar attended by King George V, the Viceroy and 80,000 maharajas and princes. A canvas city covering 25 miles went up to house everyone at the event, which was acknowledged to be the most dazzling spectacle that the eye of a mortal beheld for years to come.

Tomato juice with lime and Worcestershire sauce will also be served. The sauce is from an Indian recipe brought back to England by an ex-Governor of Bengal who asked chemists called Lea and Perrins to make it up. When it proved too fiery for their tastes, they consigned the barrel to the cellar, where it remained for some time. They decided to try it again before throwing it out, only to discover it had mellowed beautifully. Messrs. Lea and Perrins died millionaires!

Before the British arrived in India, the concept of soup as a separate course was unknown in Indian cookery. Sauces were poured over rice as a gravy or mixed with a dry curry, but never drunk alone until the British influences crept in. (See recipe left) Raj prawn molee, an Anglo-Indian dish from Bombay, which is lightly spiced and served with fragrant coconut, tomato sauce and fresh dill-flavoured Basmati rice, will be the fish course. It’s a very popular dish which is still a favourite with Anglo Indians today. This is followed by Moghul Chicken, the roots of which stretch back to the Monghul Empire of the 16th century. The pudding includes a cinnamon kulfi.

For further details and to reserve a place at this prestigious Anglo-Indian feast, which takes place on April 9, go to: www.oxfordliteraryfestival.com