The All-Important Banquet Food and Drink
By Riley Rath
This is part 3 of a blog post series on medieval feasts and banquets, created so DnD players can have better "feast encounters." Once the other blog posts are up, you can read part 1 here (medieval banquets), part 2 here (medieval festivals), and part 4 here (NPCs and resources for making your own)!
This... THIS is the most important part of your DnD feast. Because just as Julia Childs said: "A party without a cake is just a meeting." So too "a DnD banquet or festival without food and drink is just a summit."
This is counter intuitive, as a DM describing food and drink involves almost ZERO player participation. In fact, the only agency players have is choosing what to eat, and the only way they interact with the food is if it is stimulating, inebriating, or intoxicating! So why is having a big, detailed list of food and drink so important for any DnD festival, feast, or banquet?
Because vivid descriptions capture and enliven the imagination.
If you are a kid from the '90s or early 2000s, you definitely have the food fight scene from Robin Williams' Hook forever embedded in your brain; a "core memory," if you will. All the food is bright and colorful and weird and yet it looks delicious. It is legendary and one of the best depictions of a fantasy feast I have ever seen.
But it's not THE best. The best fantasy and medieval feasts belong to one man and one man only. The man, the myth, and may he forever rest in peace...
BRIAN JACQUES (pronounced "Jakes")
No, that is not a photo of some random British dude. That is the beloved and prolific author of the Redwall series. These books involve low-magic (maybe zero magic...?) where brave mice, cunning foxes, and sword-wielding badgers battle evil in epic woodland adventures, all set around the legendary Redwall Abbey. For hyper-active young boys who didn't like reading growing up, they were the perfect blend of adventure and action and an excellent introduction to reading "big books" that were more than 100 pages. My personal favorites were Mossflower, The Long Patrol, and High Rhulain.
And he always described foods in gratuitous detail for the feasts in his books.
And when I say "always," I mean ALWAYS. In fact, apart from mouses with swords, his descriptions of the feasts and banquets is one of the most distinct aspects of his stories. He somehow managed to make meals seem both realistic and obvious yet also fantastic and unattainable. It is because of him that I still enjoy a hunk of sourdough bread with a hunk of sharp cheddar cheese and lime juice on a hot summer day.
But why did he do this?
From what I have read online, Brian Jacques did this for two reasons:
1. He grew up in some level of poverty and daydreamed of long tables filled with food.
2. It drove him insane that medieval stories would mention a feast, but not mention the food at the feast.
In other words, he would read story after story after story saying: "And then the king welcomed everyone into a great banquet and they feasted" and then skip right on ahead to another conversation WITHOUT ever describing what was on the actual tables. And given what I said in blog post 1 about medieval festivals and banquets, this is CRAZY because food is, like, 75% of what makes festivals and feasts fun!
So in his Redwall books, he would describe the food... A LOT. And just about every young reader will tell you, he made those feasts so vivid you could almost taste them. Even today, reading the descriptions makes my tummy grumble even though I don't know what 1/3 of the dishes are!
And yes, his detailed descriptions of food made the story BETTER... not worse!
You see, while describing food has nothing to do with dungeon treasure, royal intrigue, or magical artifacts... and while they are the most inconsequential of player choices (if they are even given a menu!)... food and drink are still key to any banquet or feast encounter. Skipping the descriptions turns a glorious candlelight banquet into a networking conference under the florescent lights at the Marriott convention room. And food of the feast pulls everyone into the experience.
There is a reason menus have rich descriptions of food: if you describe it well enough, people actually begin to salivate, and they swear they can smell the lamb roasting over the fire or taste the wine splashing in their glass. Allow me to demonstrate...
- Imagine long, dark banquet tables of solid oak...
- Tall stone walls draped with tapestries and banners
- Illuminated by flickering candlelight...
- The din of conversation echoes throughout the hall...
- Guests snack on creamy, baked milk cheeses and toasted forest nuts...
- Before servants bring out spiced fruit pastries with golden woven crusts...
- Pints of cellar ale foaming over the sides and in elegant glassware...
- Roast boar stuffed with apples, local herbs, and crispy skin...
- All before ending with soaked honey cakes topped with toffee...
You can see that. You can taste that. So much so that you want your character to enjoy that! Each dish brings the world to life. Each detail makes the scene more compelling.
© Anna Morel
Lists of Dnd Banquet Food and Drink to Inspire You
Thankfully, there is a website that categorizes all of the good mentioned in the Redwall books! It mentions EVERY SINGLE FOOD item listed in EVERY SINGLE BOOK. And for anyone who grew up reading these books, it is quite the walk down memory lane. The food is divided into five categories:
- Breads
- Cheeses
- Drinks
- Savory Dishes
- Sweets
Of course, Redwall being filled with friendly herbivore/pescatarian woodland critters, there is one course that is noticeably missing: MEAT. And while your DnD banquets, festivals, and feasts are likely not having the standard tavern fare "roast mutton," there would certainly be a slaughtering of a boar and pheasant and sturgeon to bring the whole village, town, or court together!
This reddit post details a list of various roasted meats, fish, and stews from the 12th century.
So take a look at the lists. Have there be pigs on a spit that have been slowly turned for hours so the meat stays tender. Have there be local river fish steamed in a pot with mild herbs and broth. Have bakers bring out fresh curd pies right out of the oven. Fill gem-encrusted goblets with rich red wine straight from the heartland. Display baskets of citrus from the arid southern peninsula. Serve cuts of sugar-candied strawberries on mountains of cream!
If you are adventuring in some place more exotic, then find a list of foods that match some sort of culture similar to the one your players are adventuring in and craft the menu!
Long story short: it's a banquet... a festival... a feast... SO TALK ABOUT THE DAMN FOOD!
Describe how it is presented, what it smells like, what it tastes like, etc. Describe how other people react to it when it comes out and when they finally eat it. Describe how their bellies feel as they fill up! Use the ever-popular "5 senses" psychological description to ground players in the moment: describe what they see, hear, smell, touch, and taste.
Even if it is just a single meal, there should be at least five courses brought out to your players. And if the festival is spread out across several days, of course you can summarize all of the different foods they see.
Finally, I have used many bolded and capitalized words in headers with exclamation points to get my point across that describing the food is worth your time as a DM and worth your players time during the session. But let me end this section by walking it back just a tiny bit...
Don't spent more than 5 minutes on the food and drink.
That is MORE than enough to capture your players' imagination, ground them in the setting, and control the pacing before they pivot to festival activities and conversations with NPCs.
Speaking of which... archetypal NPCs are the subject of the next blog post!
Want food-themed dice to pair with your fantasy feast? We actually have that! Check out our Donut Dice and Cheese Dice.
