Food Secrets of Downton Abbey: When the Gravy Froze & Dropping Fake Prawns Onto the Dowager’s Lap

Ever marveled at the magnificent meals and sumptuous spreads on Downton Abbey? Go behind the scenes with Downton Abbey‘s food stylist Lisa Heathcote to learn insider secrets about preparing and filming the gourmet grandeur that is Downton Abbey’s food.

It’s the job of food stylist Lisa Heathcote to create every tantalizing morsel that appears onscreen in Downton Abbey. But not all of it is edible, and chances are if you see Mrs. Patmore slaving away at a dish, it may never be served or eaten. Working with Julian Fellowes’ scripts and the series’ set designer, Heathcote plans what Mrs. Patmore & Co. will cook during scenes and what will be served to the Crawleys and their guests upstairs. Then in her professional kitchen, she cooks the food, packs it up, and drives it to the set, whether at Highclere Castle or the film studio, Ealing, the home of Downton Abbey‘s below stairs set.

Memorable Moments

For the first three seasons of Downton Abbey, Heathcote had to prep food outdoors at Highclere Castle in a sort of field kitchen, in a tent called an “easy-up.” On one occasion, filming Season 3, she was preparing food in her tent outdoors for a big banquet scene with lots of different meats. She describes, “The side of my tent is open, and I could see [Highclere Castle countess] Lady Carnarvon walking up the side of the lawn with three very big dogs. And they just took off, running towards me because they saw the meat.” Fortunately, the crew acted fast and the meat was saved.

“At first, the easy-up worked well. But once Season 3 started filming in February, the unusually freezing weather, compounded by Highclere Castle’s unique microclimate, became a problem. One particularly icy and windy day, she describes, “I turned around to find that the gravy had become frozen! And we couldn’t even lift the gravy boat off the table because it was frozen there.”  For Season 4, she was given a small craft truck, which has made her very happy.

Another challenging moment was in Season 3, when the script dictated that footman Jimmy drop a lobster on the Dowager’s lap. “Of course, wardrobe was worried because they didn’t want a greasy lobster on the silk costume, but the script called for it.” Dressing fake prawns in with real prawns and lobster, she recounts, “I stuck all the other real food onto the platter with the fake prawns and parsley, just enough to drop off onto her lap without there being glue and a big mess all over her silk dress!”