Control, Power and Punishment

On the 11th July 1482 , King Edward IV granted the Company the first of its eight Charters. In the preamble it states ‘the freemen of the Mistery of Cooks have for a long time personally taken and borne and to this day do not cease to take and bear great and manifold pains and labour at our great feast of Saint George as at others according to our command.’

The Charter granted by King James I in 1616 again describes the Cooks’ many services to the Crown. ‘As well at the Royal Feaste of our Coronacon at the intertayninge of our deere brother the Kinge of Denmarke, the Marriadge of my well beloved daughter the Ladie Elizabeth, our annuall Feastes of Sainte George, as at the intertayninge of Forraine Princes and upon all other occasions.’ Today the Company acts under the Charter granted by King Charles II in 1664.

In the 14 th Century, one of the most common punishments for providing bad food was to send the wrongdoer to the pillory where the offending food was burnt under him.

Masters, Wardens and the Court were granted control over the trade in the City and suburbs. They wielded considerable power, being sanctioned to search, examine and scrutinize the business places of Cooks and to punish by seizure and fine the selling of unseasonable meat or the breaking of other ordinances of the Company. In addition, they controlled the system of apprenticeship, holidays and hours of work, wages and prices, they arranged pageants and made charitable payments to widows, orphans and former Cooks in poverty.

The Company was recently supportive of Corpus Christie College, Cambridge who published a copy of ‘A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye’ (Margaret Parker’s Cookery Book), the oldest known cookery book in the UK.