podcast episode 2 of 4 Where to Eat? A story

On that day, February 27, 1753, during King Louis XV’s visit to the Château de Choisy, here is the dinner menu: two large starters (lamb from Choisy and quarter veal from Pontois) followed by two geese and two soups (one salubrious, one garbur ). Then come the starters: there are twenty of them! Then there are four notes and two entremets (a pork cake and a pâté), then four medium and eight roasts, and twenty small entremets to finish. The king ate and drank well, and the skin of his stomach was tight…

The table, a tool of diplomacy

Publication of the contract French chef In 1651, the kitchen master François La Varenne notes the emergence of a new cuisine that confirms the French identity: the reduction of spices, the growth of aromatic herbs, the reduction of acidity, the separation of sweet and salty dishes, the multiplication of cooking bases or other coulis, the growing dishes. the power of butter…

The aristocratic elites of the late Ancien Regime had less opportunity to shine on the battlefield and were gradually excluded from government circles. They then invest in a new area to display their social excellence: the table. The abundance of food, the succession of lavish services, the celebration of the gourmet: at a time when famine and even the risks of famine still persist, the powerful are distinguished from the common people by their lavish spending and staging of abundance.

The butler, symbolized by Vatel, is the keystone of this highly symbolic time. Knows etiquette, pays attention to table layout and dish timing, manages menu, kitchen staff and supplies.

Antonin Carême, the birth of the figure of great chefs

In the 19th century, Marie-Antoine Carême, known as “Antonin,” was the forerunner of chef stardom. Famous for his monumental cakes and the inventor of the chef’s hat, this trained pastry chef removed the chef from his mezzanine to pass on the hotel’s prestige to him. In the service of the European elite, Karem, an ardent culinary patriot, honed his craft at the table of Talleyrand, then the Emperor’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, making sure that gastronomy facilitated the most difficult negotiations. Thus, Antonin Carême worked to promote French cultural influence.

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Talk about him

Florent Quellier He is a professor of modern history at the University of Angers, co-director and founder of the “Tables des Hommes” collection of the François-Rabelais University Press.
In particular, he published:

• The history of food: from history to the present (under his direction, Belin, 2021)

• Parties, feasts and good food at the Grand Siècle (Belin, 2015)

• Renaissance Table, Italian myth (Co-directed with Pascal Brioist, Rennes University Press, 2015)

• Gluttony, the story of the great sin (Armand Colin, 2010, reprint 2013)

• La Table des Français, cultural history, late 15th-early 19th century (Rennes University Press, 2007, reprint 2013)

Marie Pierre Ray He is a professor of Russian and Soviet history at the 1st Panthéon-Sorbonne University in Paris and the director of the Research Center for Slavic History at the Pierre Renouvin Institute.
In particular, he published:

How Why: History

All of Gérard Noiriel’s chronicles are a must listen

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Sound references

• Archive of the Sun King’s food on the show You must have seen itORTF, October 15, 1962
• Fragment from the film Canteen Édouard Molinaro, 1992, after the original work by Jean-Claude Brisville
• Archive of chef Paul Bocuse on show Big casseroleTF1, April 6, 1976
• Fragment from the film Seizure of power by Louis XIV Roberto Rossellini, 1966
• Show credits: Origami by Rone