52 The last word
THE WEEK 24 August 2019In 2006, after years reporting
in the Middle East,Imoved
to Paris. It was meant to be
temporary; at the timeIwas
just looking for somewhere
to hole up and finishabook.
My friends all said: “Oh,
Paris, how lovely! You must
be eating well.” They were
surprised to hear me complain
that Parisian menus were dull
and repetitive. “Pâté followed
by entrecôte, entrecôte,
entrecôte. Occasionally
roast lamb, duck breast.
No vegetables to speak of,”
Itold them. “It’satyranny
of meat-in-brown-sauce.”
As the rest of the world had
begun to (re)discover their
own cuisines and innovate,
the French restaurant seemed
to be stagnating inapool of
congealing demi-glace.Elsewhere, places such as
Balthazar in New York and
The Wolseley in London
seemed to be doing the French restaurant better than the French.
But in France, the old guard of critics and restaurateurs remained
convinced that French cuisine was stillapoint of national pride.
The bistros cleaved to the traditional red-and-white tablecloths
and chalked-up menus, even as they were microwaving pre-
prepared boeuf bourguignon
in the back. For my parents’
generation, and for 100 years
before them, it was axiomatic
that French food was the best
in the world–but by 2010,
when the French restaurant
meal wasadded to Unesco’s list of the world’s “intangible cultural
heritage”,it felt as if the French restaurant had becomeaparody
of itself.The restaurant was, of course,aFrench invention. The word
originally referred toarestorative,apick-me-up. In 18th century
Paris, butchers began to sellbouillons,nourishing broths made
from offcuts of meat, to workers and tradesmen. These early
soup stalls became known as restaurants;a1786 decree allowed
“caterers and restaurateurs [those who make fortifying soups]”
to serve the public on site. You could now sit atatable to partake
of your soup instead of taking it away. This decree coincided with
the construction of the Palais Royal, with its elegant arcades of
shops and ateliers. This new shopping mall necessitatedafood
court for peckish Parisians, and many early restaurants were
located in and around it. Le Grand Véfour–possibly the world’s
most beautiful restaurant–still occupies the same corner where
there has beenarestaurant since 1784. Its tables bear plaques
naming former patrons, from Napoleon to Jean-Paul Sartre.After the French Revolution swept the old order away, Paris
roiled with politics and plots, hungry pamphleteers andprovincials; restaurants
sprang up everywhere to feed
them. By the time Napoleon
had been defeated for the first
time, in 1814,agazette, the
Gourmets’ Almanac, listed
more than 300 in Paris.
The lexicon of cuisine soon
followed. Marie-Antoine
Carême, the first celebrity
chef, cooked for kings and
emperors, and wrote the
code of French cooking,
categorising the first iteration
of the five great mother sauces
(béchamel,espagnole,velouté,
tomato and hollandaise) from
which all others were derived.
Later, Auguste Escoffier
organised the restaurant
kitchen into the strict
hierarchy that still prevails
today, fromcommis chefsat
the bottom all the way up to
thechef de cuisine.All the grammar and idiom
of what we now understand
as “a restaurant” was developed by the French in the 19th
century. The menu, the progression of canapés and hors d’oeuvres
followed by entrée, plat and dessert, the accompanying march of
apéritif, wine, coffee, digestif. The way amaître d’hôtel,ormaster
of the house, welcomes guests, the formality of waiters in black
tie. Through the 19th century,
the restaurant flourished and
evolved. The bistro was a
neighbourhood place, often run
by ahusband and wife. Brasseries
were brewery eateries brought to
Paris by Alsatian refugees from
the Franco-Prussian war of 1870,serving choucroute and beer.
Bouillons were popular, working-class cafeterias that served cheap
food in vast dining rooms.There were dozens of bouillons in Paris between 1850 and 1950.
Some expanded–the first restaurant chains–reaping economies
of scale and flipping tables as fast asarevolving door. But by the
timeIgot to Paris in 2006 there was only one left, Chartier, in the
9th arrondissement.Iwent there often for the everyday classics:
oeufs durs mayonnaise,carottes râpées,poulet-frites,tête de veau.
It had nicotine-coloured walls, andIliked to imagine it was where
Orwell had washed dishes when he was down and out.During the Belle Époque, between the Franco-Prussian War and
the German invasion of 1914, Paris was the capital of the world. It
embodied the excitement of cinema, the Eiffel Tower, aeroplanes,
impressionism, cubism, Proust, Rimbaud, Diaghilev, haute
couture and towering hats. Paris then was the zenith of style –
and the French still lament its passing. More than 100 years on, as
Iglanced atamenu rich with foie gras and cream, I’d sometimes
think they were consoling themselves by eating the same dishes.
By the 1920s, however, Paris was already living asaromanticisedThe rise and fallof the French restaurantFor many years, French cuisine was the envy of the world. But more recently, culinary conservatism has threatened
to turn it intoaparody of itself, says Wendell Steavenson. Cananew generation of chefs help revive its reputation?“The restaurant wasaFrench invention.
The word referred originally to the soup stalls
set up by butchers in 18th century Paris”Le Grand Véfour: possibly the world’s most beautiful restaurant