Читать книгу The Restaurant, A Geographical Approach - Olivier Etcheverria - Страница 17

Since their invention, restaurants have found privileged locations in the city center, which is a geographical context of concentration (accumulation of a large number of social realities in a limited area) of people and socioeconomic and cultural activities, and therefore of potential customers. And products too.

DEFINITION.– “In the narrow sense, [centrality is] the central position of a place or area in a space. By extension, the ability to polarize space and make a place or area attractive, which concentrates actors, functions and objects of societies […]. In geography, the centrality of a place only really makes sense when we associate its position in physical space with the measurement of the radiation of potentials and functions located in that same place and when we consider the gradients and ‘fields’ that they produce and have in space. Walter Christaller constructs his model of central places based on an examination of the relationship between commercial and service functions and the physical distance between settlement points. According to this model, a balance between demand, and supply of goods and services is spontaneously organized in the regional space, which minimizes consumers’ travel costs. This is why supply functions are concentrated in the most accessible, so-called central places: those where demand reaches the levels necessary for supply to be profitable.” [DEM 03, pp. 139–140, author’s translation]

Figure 2.1. Menu from the restaurant Véry

In the center of Paris, the first restaurants were established in the Palais-Royal district. Rolande Bonnain says:

“At the end of the 18th Century, the first restaurants were found around the Palais-Royal, which was the old center of Paris. Small streets, luxury shops, average restaurants, gambling houses, the district attracted youth, politics, Parisian literature.” [BON 75, author’s translation]

The Palais-Royal and its surrounding area provided the necessary conditions, in terms of market, supply and demand, for the establishment of the first restaurants.

On the supply side, Valérie Ortoli-Denoix explains: “The abolition of corporations unleashed competition, and pork butchers, sellers of roast meat, pastry chefs… no longer had a monopoly on their specialities.” [ORT 90, p. 19, author’s translation]

On the demand side, it is clear that there was a dense and diversified pool of potential customers:

“Legislators who arrived in the capital, provincial legislators who were attracted to the Assembly [and] new wealthy people – for fear of settling down too quickly – formed the cohort of potential clients ready to sit down to eat. And why run around the streets when the best are at the door of the Assembly, in the heart of the city?” [ORT 90, p. 19]

Indeed, Jean-Robert Pitte insists on the relationship between the development of restaurants and the presence of “revolutionary” customers at the Palais-Royal:

“The increase of quality restaurants in Paris dates back to the Revolution. It is true, as has often been said, that a number of talented cooks then lost their masters, emigrated or were executed by guillotine. This was the case for Méot, the chef to Prince de Condé, who settled in 1791 on rue de Valois. But the other reason was the clientele, i.e. the revolutionary leaders themselves. They were determined to remove all symbols of the Ancien Régime¹ or religion, but they were determined not to throw the baby out the bathwater. Of the entire cultural and artistic building erected by the monarchy and the court, gastronomy was one of the most easily recoverable, and Marat or Danton were never suspected of being enemies of the Republic because they come to Méot’s sumptuous dinner […]. The provincial deputies present in Paris throughout the Revolution, who lived in pensions, provided a sufficiently large and stable clientele to allow restaurants to multiply.” [PIT 91, pp. 161–162, author’s translation]

In the aftermath of the French Revolution, restaurants, which multiplied very rapidly, seduced and encountered the new gastronomic expectations of Parisian urban customers.

Jean-Paul Aron begins his book Le mangeur du XIXe siècle by presenting the event represented by the opening of the Robert restaurant:

“On July 17, 1789, Prince de Condé went into exile, leaving a plethora of first-rate artists, roasting chefs, sauce chefs and pastry chefs, unemployed. Before the end of the year, Robert, who had managed his kitchens, founded a restaurant. This reclassification was more than a symbol: it crystallized scattered aspirations; it kicked off a new diet.” [ARO 89, p. 17, author’s translation]

Their real and ideal sociocultural role can be specified:

“Because they were born from the fall of the nobles, restaurant cooks and, by analogy, bourgeois houses enjoyed incomparable prestige. In Parisian mythology, they play a prominent role. They regulate worldly life, love and business, and they lend their frameworks to the imagination. The memory of the pioneers hangs over the dinners of the whole century.” [ARO 89, pp. 118–119, author’s translation]

Jean-Paul Aron evokes a “greedy opinion” that was nourished by the relationship between the sphere of restaurateurs and the world of the bourgeoisie:

“Under the Directory, in the street, in the press, in clubs, in gambling rooms, there was a greedy opinion. The glory of restaurants emerged from this sound network; between the right places and the new society a market is concluded: it provided subsidies, they created an unusual image of excellence. An advantageous treatise: the bourgeois enriched the bosses who illustrated them in return. The event disrupted perspectives, grayed the imagination.” [ARO 89, pp. 311–312, author’s translation]

The introduction deputies at the Palais-Royal explain the enthusiasm for regional kitchen restaurants:

“Arriving from all parts of the kingdom, the deputies had kept their provincial customs. The influence of those from Provence was particularly noticeable: the people of Marseille who came to celebrate the Federation’s feast brought along with the hymn of Rouget de Lisle the use of tomatoes, which had been used very sparingly until then, oil and garlic cooking, which would henceforth perfume the agape of the revolutionists.” [AND 55, pp. 32–33, author’s translation]

Thus, the restaurant Les Trois Frères Provencaux acquired a great notoriety:

“Around the same time, Les Trois Frères Provencaux, which served a bouillabaisse and cod brandade, settled in the neighborhood [Palais-Royal]. Even if we can imagine that the Provençal cuisine of this establishment lost part of its local color under the Parisian sky, its introduction represented a small revolution. Culinary exoticism was gaining recognition, and eating out implied the acceptance – or the search – for a certain change of scenery.” [PIT 91, p. 160]

René Héron de Villefosse reports on the opening conditions of the restaurant:

“Rue Helvétius – the former name of our rue Sainte-Anne, at the corner of rue de Louvois – had just opened the restaurant of three Marseille partners: Maneille, Barthélemy, known as Trouin, and Simon, brothers-in-law and whose famous name was first that of the Frères Provençaux. They brought from the banks of the Durance the secret of cod brandade and Provençal-style lamb chops. Gaston Derys even added that they made known in Paris bouillabaisse, green olives and the red mullet of Marseille. With this barber from Porte Saint-Denis, where all the Francs-Comtois used to meet to taste cornstarch, they can be considered as the inventors of regional cuisine in the capital. They are about to move into the Palais-Égalité.” [HER 56, pp. 133–134, author’s translation]

In the past (see Figure 2.2), the concentration of restaurants was remarkable and it is the same situation today (see Figure 2.3), at the Palais-Royal.

Figure 2.2. Map of restaurants and cafés at the Palais-Royal at the end of the 18th Century and under the influence of the Empire (source: according to [PIT 91, p. 163]). For a color version of this figure, see www.iste.co.uk/etcheverria/restaurant.zip

Figure 2.3. Map of restaurants and cafés at the Palais-Royal today (source: field research). For a color version of this figure, see www.iste.co.uk/etcheverria/restaurant.zip

Adil Alkenzawi describes the Palais-Royal as an urban plateau in the center of the city of Paris:

“The Palais-Royal is a fundamental example of the construction of places in the 18th century; it transforms the sensitivity of an era and the way in which the ‘world’ is created through architecture, appropriated and appreciated. It includes a set of buildings located in the center of Paris near the Louvre, built on a rectangular urban plateau perpendicular to the Seine, which covers a flat area of 405 by 123 meters, between rue Saint-Honoré, the Place du Palais-Royal and the Place du Théâtre-Français, Rue de Montpensier, Rue de Beaujolais and Rue de Valois. Rectangle in shape, located on the north-south axis, in a superb setting of a cooled inferno, where the French Revolution was fuelled. Over the centuries, the roles of the Palace, (which became royal in 1642 by Richelieu’s donation to Louis XIII), varied from the residence of the royal ‘favorites’ to those of administrative offices during the Empire. The Palace, whose entrances are located respectively on the four cardinal directions, currently houses the State Council, the Constitutional Council, the Ministry of Culture and the Comédie-Française state theater.” [ALK 08, author’s translation]

Organized around a garden and a pool, the Palais-Royal is a place to walk, displayed as an “urban passage”:

“The Palais-Royal is architecture, and above all a place built and reorganized. It is an urban organization emerged around a central core that is the garden, protected materially by the architecture and symbolically by the sculpture […]. The genesis of the Palais-Royal reveals the invention of an urban apparatus, that of the ‘urban passage’ (W. Benjamin, J.L. Déotte). In the sense that the Palais-Royal can only be seen from the inside. For it is an urban palace within the city, a fragment of a city, surrounded by narrow streets; the perspective thus passes to the second degree.” [ALK 08, author’s translation]

It is a scene of political power. Long remembered for its associations with the absolute monarchy and the Bourbons, it took on a new political dimension after the French Revolution, which explains the location of many restaurants.

The restaurant is animated by the practices of political actors and crossed by political speeches and imaginations. In this sense, Méot is a “political” restaurant:

“The most famous example of these princely cooks converted into revolutionary restaurateurs remains Méot. A former Officier de Bouche to the Duke of Orléans, this colorful character opened his establishment on 26 May 1791, within the hotel that belonged to the Chancellery of Orléans, located on rue des Bons-Enfants (at the corner with a passage ending in the arcade 177 of the Valois gallery)…. All the trendy dishes were served there, even if it meant cooking them in a revolutionary sauce. To accompany turbot fillets, the sauce made of butter, lemon juice and herbs was no longer called ‘ maître d’hôtel’ (master of the hotel), an expression with too noble a connotation, but more simply ‘ homme de confiance’ (trusted man). Similarly, care was taken to avoid introducing into the dish with the Queen’s veal nuts, which were carefully renamed the Director’s veal nuts. Among all the Parisian restaurants, Méot was the model child of the Revolution. Wasn’t the 1793 constitution drafted in a lounge that was removed from his establishment? Didn’t Robespierre, Danton and Saint-Just appear in the worst hours of the Terror? Wasn’t the execution of Marie-Antoinette finally celebrated on October 16, 1793? The members of the Revolutionary Court enjoyed a béchamel of fins and foie gras, a fine roasted chicken, 12 larks per person and champagne!” [GAU 06, pp. 29–31, author’s translation]

Jean-Robert Pitte therefore stresses: “The same link between taverns and parliamentary life has long been observed in London. Thus, French haute cuisine, descended from its pedestal, remains linked to the exercise of power, as it was under the Ancien Régime.” [PIT 91, p. 162, author’s translation]

According to Adil Alkenzawi:

“Cardinal Richelieu’s choice of this place is significant: symbolic and political. The intention of Richelieu and his architects was not limited to locating the palace complex in the center of the city of Paris, but rather to creating an urban centrality in the form of an ‘urban passage’ that can be understood as the foundation of an appropriate ‘world place.’” [ALK 08, author’s translation]

Over time, the political dimension of the Palais-Royal continued and grew stronger: the facilities of the State Council in 1875 (1, place du Palais-Royal), the Constitutional Council in 1958 (2, rue de Montpensier) and the Ministry of Culture in 1959 (3, rue de Valois).

It is also a cultural place marked by the Academies (Academy of Sculpture and Painting 1661–1692 and Music 1773–1781) and theaters (théâtre de Beaujolais and then the Palais-Royal in 1784 and, above all, Théâtre-Français, founded in 1680 and installed Salle Richelieu since 1799). The cultural atmosphere was recently reinforced by the installation of Daniel Buren’s contemporary art device Les Deux Plateaux (commonly known as the “ colonnes de Buren”) in 1986 in the main courtyard. The esthetics of the columns are essential:

“By combining technical and esthetic functions, the galleries and columns acquire the status of a rule of concordance or common denominator that determines the inscription of objects on the Palais-Royal site […]. The double Buren plateau at the Palais-Royal is an arrangement mentioned with the particularity of essentializing the columns […]. Thus, the double Buren plateau can find a deeper meaning in the 18th Century plateau. Buren’s invented modernity does not deny the classic, but creates equivalents: two materials for urban writing.” [ALK 08, author’s translation]

In front of the Comédie-Française theater, Place Colette, the Palais-Royal-Musée du Louvre metro station was estheticized by Jean-Michel Othoniel in 2000 with Le Kiosque des noctambules (aluminum mesh frame with colored Murano glass rings). For Adil Alkenzawi…

“[The Palais-Royal] an urban site, where architecture, sculpture and landscape blend together. Its garden, planted with lined trees, adorned with flowerbeds and a central basin, still contributes to its identity in the heart of the capital, a green interior cut away or protected from the city that is accessed through galleries and peristyles suitable for walks, strolling and entertainment.” [ALK 08, author’s translation]

Eugène Briffault insists on the centrality of gourmet cuisine:

“The Palais-Royal was then the center of all those whose pleasure occupied their lives; there, the noisiest restaurateurs had gathered; at their head, there was Véry and the Trois Frères provençaux, whose memory will not perish. Around the Palais-Royal were gathered distinguished houses: Beauvilliers, Robert, and this other trilogy, whose gastronomy created made a pun: Rô, Méot and Juliette; we also mentioned the Veau qui tette, this Celebration of the Parisian bourgeoisie. At that time, each house had a special reputation. Robert excelled in all beef dishes and in ordered dinners; the Veau qui tette owed its prosperity to sheep feet; there were some who boasted of double grilling; the Frères provençaux made their fortune with cod with garlic, the famous brandade and their flawless cellar; at Rocher de Cancale, Baleine flourished by the high quality of its wines and its excellent fish; the Cadran Bleu and its gallant mysteries made Henneveu a success. Some food lovers, more extravagant than delicate, enjoyed partaking in the wonders and masterpieces of each cuisine in the same day; others enjoyed dinner in reverse, starting with dessert and ending with soup: extravagance of stomachs delirious and jaded with all flavors.” [BRI 03, pp. 95–96, author’s translation]

According to Adil Alkenzawi:

“Taken as a whole, the Palais-Royal is not quite an architectural project, but the expression of an ‘open urban project’ and the invention of an urban writing medium that is ‘the Plateau’: the invention of an urban esthetic […]. Three things have not changed in all the Palais-Royal’s formation-transformation phases: the concept of ‘urban passage’, the relationship of the elements of the architectural project to their common urban inscription support, the plateau, and the meaning of the Palais-Royal’s development and extension (perpendicularity to the Seine as the city’s structural axis).” [ALK 08, author’s translation]

Thanks in particular to its restaurants, the Palais-Royal functions as a hub, animated by centripetal flows. Dense and varied, it is attractive (attraction socially constructed according to the representations). It reveals a particular concentration of restaurants, as well as other commercial activities, including food shops, from which it is logical to believe that they are linked to it if not necessarily. It is a hub of services, jobs and potential customers. This polarization explains the installation of the first restaurants, their density and diversity, and also the permanence of this singular concentration even today.

In addition to the density and diversity of the restaurants, the urban centrality of the Palais-Royal is also revealed by the permanence of a “great” restaurant: Le Grand Véfour (2 Michelin stars). This presence, even today, is explained by the sociocultural realities, landscape amenities and ideals of the Palais-Royal. Le Grand Véfour helped to maintain them and thus make the Palais-Royal a hub that always polarizes. Located at the corner of the Beaujolais gallery and the Joinville peristyle, it is one of the oldest restaurants in Paris still in operation (see Figure 2.4).

Figure 2.4. Le Grand Véfour (source: Olivier Etcheverria)

The Café de Chartres sign on the garden side of the facade recalls the first name of the establishment, which was opened in 1784 by the Aubertot lemonade seller, chosen in honor of the Duke of Chartres, who built the Palais-Royal:

“In 1784, the monumental assembly built by Louis, the architect of the Théâtre de Bordeaux, and the Théâtre-Français in Paris, was completed. The Palais-Royal, definitively dethroning the Marais, became the most brilliant magnet of Parisian life and above all the birthplace of French gastronomy.”²

Located in front of the Petits Comédiens theater, Le Grand Véfour is particularly popular with artists and politicians:

“The business of Fontaine [Aubertot’s successor], owner of Café de Chartres, was going well since in 1791, four years after its installation and despite the troubled period, he asked for permission to pitch a tent in the gardens to expand his café and shelter his customers. Driven by the success of the eating lunches with forks, he began to serve delicious dishes ensuring him an honorable place among the young lions of the restaurant industry – Bœuf à la Mode, Méot and the Frères Provençaux – and attract a gourmet clientele that is in addition to that of politicians.”³

Two owners, Charnier and Moynault, succeeded Fontaine. In 1820, Café de Chartres was bought by Jean Véfour. According to Alexandre Balthazar Grimod de la Reynière:

“The former Café de Chartres, after many and varied fortunes, is now one of the busiest restaurants in Paris. Mr. Véfour brought the crowd back. Nowhere is a stir-fry, a Marengo chicken fricassee, a chicken mayonnaise better prepared. The lounges are crowded with diners from 5 p.m. in the evening.”⁴

Luxury products were served such as black truffles (marengo chicken with truffle at 8 francs) and exotic fruits (including pineapple grown in greenhouses in Sarcelles). The fire in the wooden galleries in 1828 and the closure of the playhouses in 1836 led to a long decline of the Palais-Royal’s fortunes. However:

“Thanks to the talent and know-how of the Hamel brothers, Le Grand Véfour, worthy and imperturbable, resisted this fierce competition and witnessed the decline of the Palais-Royal with complete serenity. In 1840, he was even at his best and definitively triumphed over his only real rivals, Frères Provençaux and Véry. While the great dinners were held at the Rocher de Cancale, dear to the stomach of Grimod de la Reynière, the lunches of the Grand Véfour, ‘very well supported’, were the most popular in Paris. Ten years later, Tavernier, the new owner of the Véfour, even managed to circumvent this nuisance from Véry.”⁵

In 1944, Louis Vaudable, owner of Maxim’s restaurant on rue Royale, bought the Grand Véfour. The restaurant’s decoration is refined: carved woodwork with Louis XVI style garlands, mirrors and painted canvases fixed under glass inspired by Pompeian neoclassical frescoes – game, fish, flowers and women with flowered baskets – on walls, rosettes, garlands and medallions featuring allegories of women painted in the style of 18th Century Italian ceilings. In 1948, Raymond Oliver, originally from Langon, served a Parisian-influenced Southwestern cuisine there:

“As a promoter of regional cuisine, he was fully committed to the recipes of his Southwest and reviving old recipes that had fallen into oblivion. The fish terrine Guillaume Tirel, also known as Taillevent, Charles V’s master chef and author of the first cooking treatise written in French, the sweetbread with verjus – green grape juice – is similar to foie gras, garlic chicken, lamprey or Prince Rainier III pigeon…”⁶

Raymond Oliver was awarded athird Michelin star in 1953. The same year, the chef appeared in the first television cooking show Art et magie de la cuisine, which he co-hosted with Catherine Langeais for 13 years. It gave him a worldwide reputation. “The era of the star chef is open: kings, queens, politicians, women of the world, fashion designers, financiers, have all succeeded each other in the golden lounges during the thirty-six years of Raymond Oliver’s reign”. The restaurant’s reputation is also linked to the presence of a clientele from the world of culture (Jean Giraudoux, Sacha Guitry, Louis Aragon, Elsa Triolet, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Marcel Pagnol, Jean Genet, André Malraux, etc.), in particular Jean Cocteau (loyal customer who lived at 36, rue de Montpensier) with whom Raymond Oliver wrote a book, Recettes pour un ami, published in 1964⁷. After Jean Taittinger, chef Guy Martin became the owner of the Grand Véfour in 1991.

From this center, restaurants spread geographically and socially.