Titanic's First Class Dinner- First Class Dining on RMS Titanic

The Titanic sailed along this very stretch of Belfast Lough. Here at Rayanne House, we try to keep the memories of the Titanic alive. In fact, it's a celebration of Belfast's maritime history. While upstairs, you can enjoy views across the Lough to where the Titanic set sail, downstairs, you can enjoy the nine course lavish menu that was served to the first class passengers on the last night aboard the Titanic. We'll be starting with the first course which is the canapes from the Admiral. If you were dining on the Titanic, really the emphasis was on the food. If you were to take a cruise now, you'd have so much entertainment. On the Titanic really, they emphasised the food as being the main entertainment for the evening. They probably would have arrived for dinner maybe around 6:30, 7 o'clock. It started with canapés and a glass of Champagne and they would be still eating right up until close to midnight. There were two soups on offer on the last evening. One was clear consommé Olga. The second was a cream of barley soup which we're serving this evening. We are just finishing that with some fresh cream, some parsley. And we're just flooding the top of it with a little whiskey. A little Bushmills whisky, an Irish twist. But we know there was plenty of Bushmills on board the Titanic. The third course this evening, we're serving our roasted squab with an asparagus and watercress salad, and we're just going to finish that with a saffron and Champagne vinaigrette. Incidentally, this dish was also served at the launch of the Titanic the previous May in the Grand Central Hotel in Belfast for lunch. And also seemed to be a signatory dish right across the White Star Line. It was served on the Olympic and various other White Star liners. For our fifth course, we're going to serve a rose water and mint sorbet. The rose water I feel is a great throwback to Edwardian, Victorian times where they used rose water widely throughout their cooking. It's a flavour we may have forgotten, but with the mint, it really cleanses the palate beautifully. On such a decadent meal, it's a great palate cleanser. Even though it's the sixth course, people still manage to get through. In fact, Edwardians at the time, they measured their wealth by their girth. The fatter you were, the richer you were. There we go. We're finished with the foie gras, filet mignon. The sixth course that was served to the first class passengers. A very rich and decadent dish that was served to some very rich, wealthy customers. The dessert that was served was poached peaches. These were poached with cinnamon and cloves, and then served with a Chartreuse jelly. Chartreuse jelly was widely used by Edwardians and Victorians. In fact, it was a secret recipe for Chartreuse that had been devised by the monks. Only two monks at one time, and still to this day, ever know the recipe of Chartreuse. We know from records, the cheese on the last night was Emmental, Edam, Stilton. Cheeses that are still on the go today. They would have sat over cheese for quite a while, actually, and then moved on to cigars and brandies and all the post-dinner drinks. We came up with the idea to run the Titanic menu around two years ago. We thought we'll just try it for a couple of nights to see how it would go. We had no idea really the interest that would have come from running the last meal on the Titanic. So there you go. That was the ninth course. Tea, coffee and petit fours. The grand finale to what I hope everyone enjoyed was a fabulous meal. Exhausting work, but well worth it.