The Food Of The French Revolution | Let's Cook History | Timeline

In Europe, the 19th century begins in a terrible odour of powder and blood. The French Revolution devoured so many great talented individuals. Napoleon, however, was spared, and he in turn would make kings tremble. Empire and monarchy, then a republic and a new monarchy, would tear each other apart, but the people would still discover and exchange recipes and cooking secrets. The French discover beefsteak, while in Britain, people would clamour for dishes a la mode de Paris. Finally, another revolution, non-violent for once, the Industrial Revolution, would change eating habits. In the middle of all these tumults and upheavals, there were some gastronomists who quietly ensured that freedom does exist, at least when it comes to eating well. Antonin Carême, a master cook of many a feast in the years of the empire, puts finishing touches to an extraordinary feast. On this day of September 10th, 1812, the rumour is spreading through Paris that only three days ago, Napoleon appeared to have won a decisive battle that would open the doors of Moscow to him. Such an event deserves to be celebrated with dignity, with out of the ordinary menus. History informs us that mounds of langoustines, salmon galore on beds of crayfish and charlotte cakes, Russian style, adorn the dining tables. Antonin Carême was without doubt in France the king of master cooks of the time. His promotion was typical in the first empire. Only ten years ago, he was a simple apprentice under Bailly, the most famous pastry cook of Paris. Antonin Carême is in the service of Monsieur de Talleyrand, former foreign minister to the emperor. Talleyrand is not always delicate when subjected to his terrible crises of gout. He denigratingly accuses his cook of spoiling the dish. Carême is oblivious and retorts diplomatically. Monseigneur, my honour is to whet your appetite by the variety of my cooking. I am not responsible for the humour of your stomach. Man who will negotiate the fall of the empire smiles and gives his master cook free reign to continue his services. Carême, like all Frenchmen of the time, was fascinated by Egypt. He sought to transform the art of cooking into a monumental art and have it discovered by the nouveau riche of the empire. These men and women who climbed the steps of Empress Josephine's Boarnay Palace in a competition of bowing and curtsies were not so long ago simple craftsmen, tradesmen or even soldiers. With the empire they migrated to new trades in finance, joined the ranks of industrialists, all were promoted as senior officers and they were very proud of their titles. Whether they be barons, counts or duchesses, the dining table is the favourite place to announce their rapid social ascension. Carême knew how to vehicle their desire to dazzle. The table art seldom reached such heights of luxury to serve this purpose. Crockery, salad bowls, salvers, all are made of solid silver or better still, gold plated of up to 22 carats. This soup tureen came from the house of the Odio factory. It is indicative of the desires and pretensions of society under the rule of an emperor. With the goldsmith trade developing, Carême's enterprise became a subtle balance between good taste and architecture. Carême was extremely sensitive to the importance of decor in the art of cooking. He claimed there are five sorts of fine arts, the last of them being architecture and pastry cooking is part of this. Whether he prepared meat or fish dishes or desserts, his creations took on an architectural appearance at face value. Antonin Carême was not only an apostle of pyramid presentations of salted dishes or desserts, even if his imagination was without limits. For this dinner he composes a meringue of veal as homage to Bonaparte's first major victories. This traditional dish of the empire period bearing the hallmark of Carême would considerably evolve. Veal fried in olive oil accompanied by eggs, tomatoes and garlic cooked quickly at the eve of a battle was transformed into veal sauté accompanied by mushrooms and olives in a tomato sauce with glazed onions. Thanks to the reputation of his recipes Carême became emperor of the kitchen for many a court in Europe. Napoleon would have liked to find the time to dine at these conquered tables. The cook of princes and emperor of the kitchen would serve in the kitchens of the Tsar and of James the Rothschild in England. Antonin Carême was the last great master cook. Following his death in 1833 nouveau riche and bourgeois chose to deserve their banquets for social activities in restaurants. This was a legacy of the French revolution. Freedom, equality and catering for all or almost since to be treated like a king at the table you had to be anyone but a workman or peasant. The passion for the first generations of restaurants was undeniable. From 50 odd restaurants at the end of the revolution nearly 3 000 were registered by 1810. This sudden explosion corresponded with the rule of three. First is the fact that there is this revolution and that a lot of people lost their jobs. Cooks used to work in the big chateau in France and the bosses were decapitated or they fled away. They weren't there anymore so the cooks had to find something to earn their living. So they were unemployed and they did what they could do best cook and they started business in Paris. Now why Paris? That's because of the eaters were there the people who wanted to to dine. These people are very wealthy, they're rich and they want to show off in big places, big restaurants like the Metropole Hotel in Brussels, like the place we're in at this moment, to see people eat and to be seen by other people. But there is a third party and this is the writers. This is really new and I think I think we can label this a golden trio. The cooks, the eaters and the writers because the writers they write about where to eat, what is the speciality, is the wine good enough, what is the price, who is going to dinner, where and this trio is very important. One of the first gastronomists in history, Brière-Savarin, in his philosophy of tastes defined the phenomenon of restaurants. They are a venue where the trade consists in offering the public ready-to-consume feasts with each element bearing a fixed price. Very quickly restaurants proposed a variation of menus from simple establishments proposing broth as a starter with a single dish to larger restaurants with prestigious menus. They became essential venues for the bourgeois class and fashionable people. Tucked away under the columns of the Palais-Royal, the Grand Vefours restaurant attracts the high and mighty of Paris with its lobster sauce imperial and irritates the inheritors of the monarchy. In spite of the political turbulences which shook the 19th century, restaurants would continue to be very frequentable places. According to the writer Honoré de Balzac, they were genuine thermometers of society. I think that the restaurants are the most clear sign of the new bourgeois culture in the 19th century. The aristocrats is the 18th century, the 17th century etc. The 19th century it's a new century and of course these people can meet in other places but a restaurant is an open place theoretically. Everybody can come in but practically it's a very closed place. You have to have the money and so these people want to meet each other in places where they were where they could eat well because that's important also the new civilization of of the the taste of the good taste, le goût, and it's an introduction perhaps to to have a business meeting or to have an arrangement whatsoever. Once you have enough money you can go to this place which is a very social very socially important place to go to be seen and to see other people. The art of expressing one's social success at the table took a new turn once Napoleon, who decreasingly endured formal dinners, started a culinary revolution by launching the idea of a buffet supper. The art of receiving guests for dinner became a standing affair. The first luxury caterers appeared and multiplied. Chauvet, Poutel, and Dalvoyeux became coveted caterers, especially since they knew where to procure Empress Josephine's favorite drink, champagne. The fresh sound of bubbles of a vintage Mouet champagne of 1807 would harmonize perfectly well with a harp recital. The instrument was in vogue at the time since antiquity was the revered period. The guests are enchanted and move towards an inspired buffet where stuffed tomato, a very smart dish for the time, dominates. It has been only 10 years since tomatoes first appeared in Paris, having been transported with stocks of food by soldiers from Marseille, coming to defend the revolution. In the south of France, tomatoes have been a choice garden produce for over a century. Horticulturists cultivate the plants in rows known as buissonante. Consequently, tomato plants become true bushes. Catalogs of seed merchants of the time index three major varieties of tomato, red, yellow, or green. The tomato had started off on a long and successful career which hasn't faltered to this day. Far from luxurious dining tables and the discovery of love apples as tomatoes were called, the ordinary soldier of Napoleon's army had a much more frugal diet. Every year, the day before the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, Bivouac Plancenois prepares the campfire. He's lucky it's not raining today. These enthusiasts of history in every detail are also subjected to the grub Napoleon's old guard soldiers had to make do with. For once we won't get our teeth black. We got salt this time to salt our soup. Usually we have to use the powder from our cartouche. The saltpeter of the gunpowder blackens teeth. A soldier really had to believe in the cause of the corporal from Corsica to cover 35 to 40 kilometers per day on foot with two meal breaks, one at 10 a.m. the other at 5 p.m. The principal food of a soldier, especially the French soldier, besides soup was bread. I believe that left its mark on the nation. Bread was always a staple food but as suppliers did not always follow the soldier of the front lines, they also had a supply of biscuits. They were inedible when dry. Soldiers used to soak them in soup or wine. It is not surprising that troops could only improve on rations by plundering farms and villages they came across. To transform food supplies into an odorous pot of soup, some 4,000 camp followers accompanied the emperor's troops. In their horse-drawn caravans, many became lords of cunning and improvisation. They had the responsibility of officially distributing alcohol before the battle. They also offered supplements for a price. On this day of June 18, 1815, the camp followers, among whom were also laundry staff, nurses or wives and girlfriends for an evening, would be witness to a terrible tragedy that befell the emperor's army at the hands of the allied English and Prussian armies. Waterloo was indeed a disaster for Napoleon. The imperial army made the wrong decisions and suffered humiliation. The valiant cavalrymen of Marshal Ney were shot to pieces by the entrenched English infantry and especially the elegant Scots Guards. The French tried to forget Waterloo but they did not ignore certain practices of the victors. The French population had already been obliged to taste beet sugar since the maritime blockade by the English fleet, which deprived French ports of cane sugar. Now they had to resort to eating bovine meat, well-cooked, rare or medium rare. The writer Alexandre Dumas testified with suspicion to the prospect of eating a slice of beef in his plate. I remember seeing beefsteak being eaten after the 1815 campaign. The English remained two or three years in France and imported their eating habits. The British were truly the first Europeans to practice bovine breeding for consumption on a large scale and now this carnivorous eating habit was being adopted on the other side of the channel. England, or the UK in general, was the richest country of the world because of the trade and especially because of the industrial revolution. So this leads to two developments. First, there is an increasing industrial working class with wages that are pretty high, that are increasing. And second, there is an extremely rich elite in the cities but also in the countryside who do extremely well because of this industrialization. The working class can afford to buy meat, much more on the continent than in France, Belgium or Germany. To give just one figure, around 1850 and 1900, the average meat consumption of the working classes in Belgium was nine kilograms per head and per year. Nine. That's not a lot. In Britain, it was about 30. As the century progressed, herds of Angus would inspire stockbreeders to rear sailor and red Flanders cows on the continent. Across Europe, increasing numbers of cattle could be found grazing. Their principal activity, besides feeding and sleeping, would probably be contemplating the increasing number of monstrous steam machines traversing the country. Peace returned, allowing the rapid development of rail tracks. Rail transport enabled regional products to be sold in towns and cities hundreds of kilometers away. With an increasingly dense rail network converging towards large cities like Paris, a profusion of animal and vegetable products was sold in urban markets. Thanks to such change in domestic markets, Europeans did not have to wonder anymore if there'd be enough to eat, but rather what choice to make. Everywhere, market halls and local markets abounded in food. The rural population, the majority population, suddenly discovered productivity. The agricultural revolution is the term we use to qualify the changes that led to an increase in agricultural production. Inventions like the introduction of new plants are included, but also the introduction of new farming practices. For example, the introduction of fodder that made it possible to rear much more cattle, then higher meat production. Accrued soil cultivation was another factor. The new methods were born from industrial procedures like manures from the second half of the 19th century. Combined, these factors of change meant better food for the entire population. Fresh bread, eggs, potatoes and vegetables became the staple foods of the rural population. To better earn their living, the best products are sold and sent to the cities. Poultry, sheep and cattle more than often finished in plates of the urban population. But for the first time in history, food shortages began to disappear from continental Europe. Only Ireland remained victim to them. In 1845, the Irish potato disease, almost the exclusive food to many an Irishman, plunged the country into an appalling famine. The rest of Europe was hardly concerned, preferring to transform gardens and its orchards into true Edens of production. The 19th century reached record heights for diversity of foods, thanks to the know-how of peasants and horticulturists, together with the aid of the seed production enterprises. The seed production experts such as Villemaurin brought innovation. He improved varieties of vegetables to answer to the evolution of tastes. This evolution desired products suited to boiling, large leeks, cabbage. In fact, natural savours were being lost. Boiled vegetables were in demand, a taste for more sweeter vegetables such as French beans, peas and carrots developed. The sweeter, the better. The seed production market was a response to horticultural developments, spurred on by increasing numbers of consumers. This extraordinary diversity in production would decrease progressively as consumer demand wavered, and also because of profitability. The result, out of 80 varieties of apples indexed in Europe in the 19th century, no more than 10 exist today. In the 19th century, fruits were also the subject of very detailed attention. Certain producers became true artists. Such was the case in the Montreux market in the outskirts of Paris. Here, producers of luxury fruit practised the technique of marking. In their urban orchards surrounded by white lime walls, designed to accentuate light and heat, nursery specialists would also manage to reproduce coats of arms and portraits of customers on the skin of their fruits. After having covered the fruit with paper sachets at the beginning of summer, so that they could grow without getting a colour, their protection would be removed at the beginning of September, and stencils in the form of blazons or badges or drawings could be stuck on the skin of the fruit. After 10 days of sunning, the stencils leave their trace on the skin, and the fruits become transitory works of art. Initially developed by the Arabs, this technique would become increasingly sophisticated towards the end of the 19th century, with the use of photographic negatives. By producing white calville apples in the effigy of Tsar Alexander, painted fruit artists of Montreux won first prize in the agricultural show during the World Fair of Saint Petersburg in 1894. Tastes have changed, agricultural production has increased. It is becoming increasingly difficult to preserve food in salt or cooked food with sugar. To manage food stocks, a whole range of techniques of preservation would be invented in the 19th century. For a very long time, man has dreamed of preserving the seasons in a bottle. From the time of Julius Caesar to Napoleon, techniques of preservation were sought after. Real results gradually appeared in the 19th century, with the two revolutions in preservation. On the one hand, there was a process by heat, developed by Nicolas Appert, then coal storage, with the Frenchman Charles Tellier at the origin of this new technique. Tellier, an enterprising scientist, succeeded in shipping a boatload of meat from Argentina in 1876. His cargo vessel was baptized the Refrigerator. After one and a half months of crossing the Atlantic, the invaluable cargo had been successfully preserved at zero degree. The meat was in perfect condition in the port of Rouen. However, protectionist measures combated all the enterprises allowing the importation of fresh products into France. The unfortunate Tellier, the father of refrigeration, finished his life forgotten and ruined. Another discovery was made in France, canning. At first, it was a sterilization process of food in a glass container by a short heating period at a high temperature of 100 degrees Celsius. The application was taken further in England, where more developed metallurgical industries replaced glass, the principle of Nicolas Appert, by tinplate in round or square forms later called tins. Large-scale manufacturing of preservation had started. The revolution of preservation would be accentuated with hot or cold pasteurization. On a medical basis, this process made consumption of dairy products and beer free of risk. During this period, the quality of wine improved considerably. In the Bordeaux-Burgundy region, and even here in Vaqueras, the vineyards of the Rouen river valley were subjected to very thorough scientific studies. Louis-Joseph Gay-Lussac elaborated a theoretical equation of alcoholic fermentation. Precise data on the alcohol content of the principal wines was now available. This control of fermentation was coupled by the advent of oenologists in the second half of the 19th century. The first classification of wines and nomination of great vintages took place. Then complex and strict laws were made to frame the production of wine. It was the beginning of decline for unscrupulous wine producers. For serious wine producers, it was the beginning of social ascension, with the attribution of vintages. With or without good or nasty wine, bread is always eaten, especially by workmen. Even though the local baker accepts payment next time, and most families of modest origins can avoid going hungry, their menus are not very varied. For Friedrich Engels, the great defender of the proletarian class, if a humble person does not belong to the category of workmen employed with decent wages in the new factories, he will find misery manifested in his plate. He wrote, In families where wages are low, animal protein is reduced to diced bacon mixed with potatoes. This is the case only when a worker holds a job. Among the trades of the working classes, miners occupied a special place in the ranks of suffering. They earned their meals with sweat and toil in the dark. The extreme harshness of their work, the risks of explosions or cave-ins, and silicosis, a respiratory disease caused by the inhalation of silica dust, shortened their lives. They became emblematic victims of the Industrial Revolution. Here in the Aramburg mine in the town of Valenciennes in northeastern France, former miners pay homage to their ancestors. Hacking out coal with a pick, cutting blocks of coal, hauling the coal in coal wagons for hours on end in 40 degrees Celsius conditions, miners waited impatiently for the sacred moment, the snack break, announced by a lighter. It was a brief moment of relief, especially from fire-damp explosions. Between slices of bread, miners used to snack on Marawal cheeses with its terrifying aroma. During the period portrayed in Germinal, Emile Zola's testimonial novel on miners, such sandwiches were almost a staple food. The black-faced miners used to soak the bread in a solution of beer and thyme or cloves. In time, these cheeses became a delicacy and lost their proletarian perfume. Back in Paris and the workshop of the painter Eugène Delacroix, as one could imagine it, an odor of romanticism abounds. Delacroix was an idealist, infatuated with freedom, symbolizing it by an association with the fight of the oppressed peoples, such as the ancient Greeks, portrayed in the painting The Massacres of Sion. The wind of freedom guided the French people to spark another revolution that lasted three days. The Three Glorious Days of 1830, as the French called them, caused the downfall of Charles X and brought Louis-Philippe to power. Delacroix had the heart of a romantic, a revolutionary, but was paradoxically an incorrigible conservative. The evolution of Morris irritated him, the practices of the new middle class disgusted him, table etiquette of the time maddened him. His carefully worked journal testifies. These Russian-style dinners disturb me greatly. The servants wait on guests pitifully. Farewell cordiality, farewell pleasant business making a good dinner. You regret these dinners that are only fit for students. Meanwhile, Parisians were fighting for freedom behind barricades, but in wealthier circles people had enjoyed a certain freedom for some time. The 19th century changed the face of customs. Innovation, speed, traditions were altered rapidly, in keeping with the tempo of the new style of dances that made the bourgeois class dizzy with excitement. Guests could now take their partner by the waist to waltz Austrian or English style. They ate Russian style, according to the new fashion launched by Prince Kourakhin, ambassador to the Tsar in Paris. Away with a sense of propriety and old-style etiquette. Away with dancing where seduction was all in the hands. Away with meals a la francaise, where one ate according to one's pleasure, with a choice of dishes to each course. Now a single course was the mode. Diners ate according to the order envisaged by the menu. Dinners were less copious, but more discreet. Appearances became as significant as what was on the menu. There was truly a sort of staging of dinners as from the Second Empire. There was a proliferation of small objects on the table, silver-plated dishes and table accessories. An anecdote concerning these accessories. The silver plate of the prongs of forks were worn away fairly quickly in contact with a knife. The silversmith Christoffel had the idea of producing forks with only the tip of the prongs in solid silver so that diners would not have the impression of eating with cheap silver-plated cutlery. Appearance, refinement and signs of wealth were the order of the day at bourgeois dining tables, emulation of the former ruling class, even for families that were not among the elite. The appearance of wealth was essential even if silver plate was in reality a reflection of cheap wealth. The preparation of the ceremony of dining by the servants as a collective unit. They had to handle fine crystal glasses with infinite precaution. They had to polish silver cutlery yet another time before the meal. A sparkling dinner service was a symbol of prestige for the family. Across Europe the new and essential room of a residence was the dining room. It was home to a new generation of good manners. Here it was advisable to receive a small number of guests so as to comment on family life, to discuss business or to forge good relations when necessary. The dining room ritual was a window to exposing the triumph of bourgeois cuisine. An exodus of young women from the countryside ensued. In wealthy families who had the means to employ a cook, girls, very young women from the countryside took care of cooking. They arrived with a knowledge of local products, culinary traditions, regional cooking. They now had the material means, the possibility to buy expensive ingredients. These two traditions converged creating a junction which would produce the great cooking tradition of the 19th century. Tradition and profusion of ingredients gave rise to a very rich cuisine. Both regional dishes and traditional recipes found their way to the cooking pot in greasy sauces to which cream was added. These ideas triumphed. An imposing waste is a sign of social success even if the subjects fall victim to caricaturists. But there was an alternative. People could eat lighter meals and more merrily. The impressionist painters captured a new fashion, lunches on grass. The term picnic was not yet used. The impressionist also knew how to capture the moment of a make-up session of the ladies prior to honoring an invitation for dinner at Chateau Kenney as portrayed here. For the Honolstein family, owners of this prestigious address, it is a grand evening. A toast with champagne is a perfect way to celebrate new investments in a very promising sector, rail-bound transports. While waiting for their husbands to finish their conversation on investment prospects and proceed to the table, these ladies chit-chat about sumptuous crinoline dresses. An expert of the culinary fast of the 19th century, Lionel Mora, attempts to resuscitate the dining table of Chateau Kenney to its past glory. His small brigade of cooks prepare the first part of the menu that his ancestor and mentor, Auguste Escoffier, a reference in haute cuisine in Europe at the end of the 19th century, would have concocted. Salmon in a Venetian-style sauce, fillet in Madeira sauce, fattened chicken, Le Mans-style in goat's cheese sauce, are taking shape, just as at the time of Escoffier, as he prepared his wonders in the kitchens of the Hotel Ritz. Like all the great cooks of the time, Mora agrees that one can make a treasure from rough raw material and get esthetes to lord it. At the end of the 19th century, every menu of bourgeois cuisine was full of melanosporum, a genus of truffle. Take this meal, for example. Fattened chicken, Le Mans-style, will be stuffed with truffles and a selection of mushrooms, and to epitomize luxury, accompanied by a pot of foie gras with truffle. After beginning with soup, Cressy-style, dinner can truly take off with vol-au-vent chicken. To accompany the first course, the wine waiter will propose a vintage 1841 Medoc to celebrate Félix's birthday, who today is at an age to become engaged. All wines are now drunk neat. Water is served in another glass. Soup, pâtés, hors d'oeuvre, and petit four with fresh truffle are to open the dinner, awaiting the roasts. Like his master, Auguste Escoffier, Lionel Mora is gently cooking his speciality, cuisse de navre au roi. His main dish is a dish of truffle, his version of frog's legs, a dish that wealthy customers and gourmets swoon over at the dining tables of the Carlton or Savoy hotels. While keeping an eye on the preparation of the cuts of meat and poultry, Chef Mora surprises his second-in-command, who is cutting a superb saddle of lamb that has just come out of the oven. This dish has received a rather pretentious title, saddle of lamb, Cherville style. The preparation becomes, carefully roast a saddle of lamb on a spit, dress it with herbs, then surround it with tightly packed apples. Cover the apples with an apple puree, return to the oven, having already prepared a horseradish sauce, which will accompany the dish. Pour over the dish one deciliter of porto, blended with nutmeg, cinnamon and pepper. Cook to reduce the liquid sauce by a third. Add four deciliters of redcurrant jelly to embellish the saddle, prior to adding two spoonfuls of the finely grated horseradish, to bring out the full taste of this wonderful recipe. Diners, finding their stomachs a little full after all these entrees, can make room for the main course by enjoying a sorbet with Kirsch. After this, they can appreciate the saddle of lamb, Cherville style, and thus discover the art of braised meats developed by Escoffier. Escoffier's art of cuisine is very modern. In the 1880s, haute cuisine was really very heavy. A long period of digestion was required. Escoffier revolutionized cookery at this level. He truly simplified cooking philosophy. He removed many of the fat contents from recipes. He also identified products better. He disassociated incongruous mixtures. Escoffier is still a major reference for all great chefs today. At the foot of the Bavarian Alps, in the small village of Aschau, the locals know how to live well, particularly when they dine at the very smart and cordial Residenz restaurant. It is home to the slightly rococo world of Heinz Winkler, the youngest European chef to obtain three stars. Winkler is an enlightened collector of original editions of cookery books. He possesses the works of all the great masters of cookery. In a trunk dating from the 15th century, you can find invaluable editions pertaining to the work of Scappi and Lavarin, or another edition signed by Antonin Carême. Among these treasures, he cherishes one in particular, the work by Auguste Escoffier. To Winkler, it is his bible. In the past, meals could be very heavy. Three kinds of meats could be served. In the time of Escoffier, you could find poultry, calf and venison in the one menu. Today, with regards my vision of cookery, I've already published 88 books on the subject, I look for new savours. Cooking time is much shorter than in the past, therefore meals are much easier to digest. Preparing each dish, his formidable culture of haute cuisine enables him to reinvent subtle balances of savours. Traditional roast beef in salted crust, an Escoffier recipe, takes a surprising form at the hands of Winkler. One could almost believe it is a spine of lamb in a savoury pie. A small revolution in cooking was made. Escoffier had the idea of mixing salt and flour to make the crust of the meat. One kilo of flour, one kilo of salt, has as function to distribute heat evenly, so that the roasting is perfectly regular. This is an example of old ideas that we have reworked a little, but the inspiration comes from the past masters. Winkler illustrates this further with his turbo classic style. Add tarragon, lemon and small fresh tomatoes to the fish. It is a simple yet perfect and particularly healthy recipe, harmonising Winkler's philosophy of cookery with the ideas of savours in the 19th century, bonding modern cookery methods and those of the past. Bria Savarin, the revered theorist of gastronomy in the 19th century, could have enjoyed this dish and noted in his journal the philosophy of tastes. A phrase such as this, the discovery of a delicious dish makes a man happier than the discovery of a star. With the development of the 20th century, many people of the working classes would get plumper, while people of the upper middle class would start to think of their figure. The developing catering industry would start to dream of creating one, two or three star chefs. Carême or Escoffier could never have imagined the incredible evolution of cooking which followed the emergence of the food industry. Because of this, our dining tables would bear the weight of abundance. Quality would often be absent, however. But that is another story.