It’s about this time of year that people start looking to the future, and it also happens to be the birthday of possibly the most famous foreteller of all – Nostradamus.
Born sometime in the week before Christmas in 1503 and known to his friends as Michel, Nostradamus dabbled in a few things but his best skill was probably the gift of the gab.
This came in very useful when one of his prophecies was interpreted as predicting threats upon the life of the French King Henry II. Summoned to Court with a good chance he could be beheaded, he managed to sweet talk the Queen and in doing so gained Royal patronage and instant fame. The equivalent today of Taylor Swift endorsing your tik tok video.
His prophecies became eagerly awaited and were outlined in hundreds of short poems, released annually up until his death. Ever since then scholars have interpreted them as predicting major global events including the Great Fire of London, Hitler coming to power and the assassination of John F Kennedy.
More recently he has been attributed with predicting the climate crisis, problems for the House of Windsor and the rise of Elon Musk – which is even more remarkable considering he also predicted the world would end in 1999.
Nostradamus is said to have predicted his own death. His final words were reportedly: “you will not find me alive at sunrise.” Eerie stuff, although at the time he was high on nutmeg and suffering from extreme arthritis and a host of other ailments.
However, there is one legacy Nostradamus left which has been found to be true – his recipe for making jam.
Because amongst his many skills, Nostradamus also enjoyed cookery and actually included recipes in his annual almanac, notably cherry jam and candied orange. Despite the lapse of over 500 years, these have been translated, recreated and found to be delicious.
Perusing the extensive selection of this year’s Christmas cookery books we can’t help wondering whether today’s celebrity chefs will leave such a mark on history.
In five centuries time will we still be leafing through Mary Berry’s Christmas Collection? will Jamie Oliver’s turkey risotto still cut the mustard?
You don’t need a crystal ball to know the festive period can be a hectic time and not everyone can spare the many hours it takes to prepare Nostradamus jam or indeed prepare vol-au- vents, wrap blankets round pigs or stir a Christmas pud.
Fortunately, you don’t have to. Our chefs at SK Foods spend all year researching the best in world food to offer traditional and new tastes that can be enjoyed during the festive season and throughout the year.
So with a wide choice of delicious food that includes wontons, filo tartlets, char sui pork buns and lamb parcels we confidently predict there’ll be something in the SK range that leaves your party guests coming back for more.
About Oliver Parkinson
Sous Chef of SK Foods.
Your food. Our Passion.
