Fortnum & Mason is launching a competition to find a dish celebrating the Queen’s 70 years on the throne, marking the beginning of official jubilee festivities.
Much like Poulet Reine Elizabeth, more commonly known as coronation chicken, invented by Le Cordon Bleu London for the Queen’s coronation banquet in 1953, it is hoped the Platinum Pudding competition will serve as a long-lasting reminder of the 95 year-old monarch’s reign.
Recipes will be judged by an expert panel including the queen of British baking herself, Dame Mary Berry.
Other programmes unveiled by Buckingham Palace on Monday include the Queen opening her private estates to the public and a concert outside the palace.
The Queen usually spends the anniversary of her accession privately at Sandringham. It is not clear which events she will attend or take part in following orders to rest by doctors in October last year and an overnight hospital stay for unspecified preliminary investigations.
The bulk of the jubilee duties are expected to be given to the rest of the royal family, including the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall.
From 12 to 15 May, more than 500 horses and 1,000 performers are expected to take part in a show in the grounds of Windsor Castle, which will take the audience through history from Elizabeth I to the present day.
More ceremonies are to take place later in the year, starting on Thursday 2 June, the first day of the special four-day bank holiday, when the Queen’s birthday parade, Trooping the Colour, will take place in Horse Guards Parade.
On the same day, the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and UK Overseas Territories will come together to light a beacon at the same time as the principal beacon at Buckingham Palace.
On Friday 3 June, which will be a bank holiday, a service of thanksgiving for the Queen’s reign will be held at St Paul’s Cathedral, before what’s billed to be a star-studded Platinum Party at the Palace on the Saturday. Performers are yet to be named but it’s said to be bringing together some of the world’s biggest names in entertainment.
People across the country will sit down together for the Big Jubilee Lunch on 5 June. Sandringham and Balmoral will also be open for residents and visitors to enjoy the celebrations across the long weekend.
Performers, dancers, musicians, military personnel, key workers and volunteers will tell the story of the Queen’s reign in the Platinum Jubilee Pageant, which will form a River of Hope – devised of 200 silk flags – making its way along the Mall.
Schoolchildren have also been invited to create a picture of their hopes for the planet over the next 70 years, and some of their designs will be put on to the flags.
From July, three displays marking the Queen’s accession to the throne, the coronation and jubilees will be put on at the official royal residences.