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The London Housekeeper to Edwin Lascelles once warned her Harewood colleagues to prepare "for A Great Dell of graindeur & yr. Stommakks and Pallets for all frinsh Dishes for we air all a Modeaparre" (a' la mode de Paris!). He really appreciated French cuisine, establishing a tradition which was to continue at Harewood well into the twentieth century.
In most great houses the kitchens are ample in size, but strictly utilitarian in character, with simple plastered walls and few architectural features. In contrast, the kitchens at Harewood were created by a patron who demanded the highest standards, an architect, in John Carr of York, who really knew how to use stone, and a highly-skilled workforce. The result is a kitchen of exceptional quality, with walls, skirtings and door surrounds of beautifully cut masonry, and a great vaulted roof shaped like the ceiling of the Sistine chapel.
Work started with the excavation of the cellars in the spring of 1759, and was ready for use when Edwin Lascelles moved into his new house in 1771. However, it was a further four years before the workmen finally departed. During this period Thomas Chippendale provided curtains and blinds to the kitchen windows. Thomas Sunderland completed the painted decoration and John Walker worked on the jelly stands, cupboards, chopping block and stools required by the cooks. John Muschamp made numerous adjustments to the stoves and fireplaces.
During Barry's alterations of the 1840s, all the old equipment and fittings were swept away, being replaced by the most modern and efficient versions then available. In the late Victorian period the 4th and 5th Earls used Barry's newly enlarged kitchens to the full, employing a succession of French chefs, of whom the most famous was M. Louis LeComte. He was an outstanding member of his profession who at the 1887 International Culinary Exhibition in London had won the Diploma of Honour, the Grand Prize, and the Gold Medal awards. He would certainly have needed considerable skills to cater for this great household. In December 1880, for example, there were usually at least 30 people to be fed every day, with 102 for Christmas Dinner. Over a ton of meat was cooked to provide 1295 dinners during that month alone.
 The kitchen was restored in 1996 so that it could be opened to the public as a first glimpse of the practical workings of this great house. All the accumulated layers of whitewash were stripped to reveal the original painted finishes of 1774. Cupboards were removed to show the charcoal stove and the whole of the copper-ware brought out of store, catalogued, cleaned and returned to its original shelves.
Edited from an article by P.Brears, 1996
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