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Part One: Food in Paris

A slice of culinary history

The identity of France—the European nation with the longest history of tenacious centralized government—and the identity of Paris, its capital, have been closely intertwined for centuries. Since the 13th century, when Philippe-Auguste built the fortifications around the city and set up his royal palace, Paris has been the stage on which French social mores have always been defined. And none more so than the tradition of food, which has played a major role in French society since the Middle Ages.

In Medieval times the subtleties of fine dining were only enjoyed by the ruling classes. The poor contented themselves day in day out with a diet of black bread and gruel. The kitchens of the Court served white bread with tender meat of poultry and game, spices, and exotic fruits, washed down with generous amounts of claret or other headier wines. Dairy products, most red meat, and vegetables were left to the commoners, along with cheap wines, cider, and beer.

In the 17th century, the heart of France was neither Paris nor Versailles, but the body of Louis XIV, the Sun King. When his power was at its zenith, the King's meals—like the rest of his private life—were lavish affairs attended by the notables of the day. Cooking took a decisive turn. La Quintinie, who benefited from being in the King's favor, made orchards and vegetable-growing fashionable; the use of spices was abandoned, and the star chefs of the day stigmatized "the old-fashioned and disgusting manner of preparing things" as being "gothic" cuisine. Food became an affair of state, in fact to such an extent that Vatel, who was responsible for the King's entertainment and his table during a visit to the Prince de Condé, chose suicide when his delivery of fish failed to materialize on time. Of course, such considerations only concerned nobility. Commoners for their part were starved as never before.

In the 18th century, the Regent took up quarters in Paris, far from the outdated etiquette of Versailles. Pleasure, once rejected by Madame de Maintenon because of her fear of eternal damnation, came back into fashion. The first restaurants appeared and caused a furor, making antiquated taverns and inns unstylish, too rugged for civilized tastes. The French Revolution brought an end to aristocratic privilege and introduced a relative democratization of manners. Alexandre Grimod de la Reynière, author of the Almanach des Gourmands, formed a jury of tasters and invented the food review. A little later, Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin's Physiology of Taste raised a veritable temple to the art of gastronomy. Both works placed culinary art and all that goes with it (wines, the order of serving dishes, table settings, conversations, table etiquette) at the center of French culture, and made Paris the arbiter of taste, in both senses of the word, in flavors and esthetics. La Reynière, in his Ecrits Gastronomiques, described the paradox thus: "Though Paris itself produces nothing, for not a grain of wheat grows there, not a single lamb is born there, not one cauliflower is harvested there, it is the center where everything from every corner of the globe lands, because it is the place where the respective qualities of all that man uses as food is most appreciated, and where such things are best transformed for our sensual pleasure." Brillat-Savarin declared: "Animals feed themselves; man eats; but only the wise man knows how to eat."

Opposite St. Lazare train station, the Brasserie Mollard is an Art Nouveau masterpiece. In the foreground, Scallops with Citrus Vinaigrette (see recipe on page 64).

An intimate aristocratic supper in the 18th century.

A typical scene in a bourgeois restaurant from days gone by, with the ceremonial carving of a calfs head, served with traditional sauce ravigote.

Today, cooking interests all people at every level of society. The poor may not eat like the rich, but the passion for food crosses the barriers of social class and everyone, aprt from those who eat only to survive, can develop the knowledge of food that results in real pleasure.

Paris today, like Paris in the 19th century, is unanimously a city of food lovers. Talk about food with a Parisian, in the street, at the bar of a cafe, or on a bus, and his eyes will light up, his attitude will soften, and his warmth will shine through. He could go on forever. He, for one, knows how to eat.