Swan pie on the menu at Elizabethan feast The first Elizabethan feast of the new Elizabethan era was held at London's Cumberland Hotel today. It was a five-course meal in whch the diners reverted to the custom of Tudor times by using daggers, their fingers and bread. On the menu was Birch Soup ( beef soup flavoured with young shoots of birch) , Salt Fish cooked in May Butter and garnished with grilled oysters, Swan Pie etc. The feast was given by Raymond Postgate, President of the Good Food Club in answer to a challenge from M Alexandre Douheret , the hotel's chef-de-cuisine , who wanted to prove that England is not a dull place for food . 29 May 1952