The hit Netflix show Bridgerton may have made the Regency period popular again, but Paul Couchman was a fan of the era well before it was fashionable. His penchant for recreating 18th-century dishes from old recipe books has led to his nickname, The Regency Cook. He has fans all over the world – but for him it’s not simply about the food.
“These recipes allow us to see more than what people were eating 200 years ago; they show us their culture, the social structure, how houses would have worked and smelled, and the illness and ailments they worried about. Each recipe is a peek back through time.”
Despite his love affair with the period, he fell into the business quite by accident. He spent his twenties as an artist in Amsterdam, where he also worked as a cook in a squatter’s kitchen, before moving back to England to study art history at Sussex University as a mature student. Then, in 2014, he signed up as a volunteer to help restore the Regency Town House in Brighton.
“We were physically rebuilding the house, and I was fascinated by the kitchen,” recalls Couchman, now…
