Dinners and suppers formed an important part of the daily routine and required approximately one-fifth to a quarter of the annual courtly budget. They could vary largely according to their publicity. On official or religious occasions, great stately galas were held, where the Imperial couple dined publicly in the Rittersaal (the Knight’s Hall) in the presence of hundreds of people. Every single dish ceremoniously passed through 24 pairs of hands before it reached the Imperial table. The palace kitchen lay in the Swiss Court, and the wine cellars under the Leopoldine wing.
At the opposite end of the scale, intimate meals took place in the family circle or among a few close friends.The confirmations of the young Archdukes was an affair somewhere between these contrasting types of dinner: neither a state event nor a private family gathering. However, as it was a religious affair, a remarkable number of courtiers, noble guests and servants were involved.
The meals described in the chapter come from one of the numerous ‘imperial’ cookbooks available in the museum shops in Vienna.
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