In fact, quiche with spinach, string beans, tarragon, cheddar, cream, milk and eggs should be on the menu today. Each coronation requires one signature dish and in recent weeks all the British newspapers have reported how King Charles III and his wife Camilla personally selected this savory pie middle part for ‘The Coronation Big Lunch’, community lunches are being hosted across the UK today.

Where Charles’ mother chose the ‘poulet reine Elizabeth’ in 1953 – soon renamed the ‘coronation chicken’ – it should come as no surprise that his activist, part-time vegan son has chosen to focus on vegetables. (The king apparently cut out dairy one day a week and went meatless two days a week.) Food is political, right? The cute detail is in the pie crust lard, or lard go. So he’s not really a vegetarian.

‘Coronation quiche’ was invented by court chef Mark Flanagan because, it was reported Guard, ‘The food is great for sharing, can be served hot or cold, adapts to a variety of dietary needs and isn’t too difficult or expensive to make’. That sounds really interesting, but we won’t be making quiche here for two reasons. The first is that the recipe can already be found on many websites, including the Netherlands. The second reason is that today is the first Saturday of the month and therefore the classic time you asked for.

In the meantime, we’ll stay on the other side of the Channel. Exactly one year ago I published a trifle recipe with strawberries. A reader later wrote to me of his childhood memories of this dessert, which was called “monkey vomit” in his childhood home. He also asked me to pay attention to another famous British fruit dessert: Eton mess. And now it’s strawberry season again, let’s get started.

The Eton mess has a distinguished history: its first written record dates back to 1893. At the time, it was a dessert of strawberries or bananas mixed with ice cream or whipped cream, which was traditionally served during the annual cricket match between the prestigious Eton University and The same esteemed Harrow School University. As is often the case with recipes, the composition changed over time: the bananas and ice cream disappeared and meringue pieces were added. Today, Eton Mess is made with all kinds of fruit.

The tale of a Labrador sitting in a picnic basket filled with strawberry pavlova at one of those cricket tournaments, sadly, we have to indulge in fairy tale realms. The name mess doesn’t seem to refer to the messy appearance itself. It also means: ‘a quantity of food’, ‘preparation of soft food’ and ‘a mixture of ingredients cooked or eaten together’. But in any case, this dessert frees us from the obligation to do our best to serve it. As British chef Heston Blumenthal once said: “It may look messy, but it’s the way it should be.”