The Birth of French Haute Cuisine .................................................

Lecture 20

J

ust as Italy passed the culinary leadership to Spain in the early 17th
century, France took the lead in the mid-17th century. Beyond the sheer
number of cookbooks that were produced, the French took the lead in
the ways that they innovated—either by creating new recipes and techniques
or by creating new fashions that were imitated everywhere. Everyone in
Europe imitated French fashion, architecture, language, diplomacy, and,
indisputably, cooking. This lecture will sample from cookbooks by four of
the giants responsible for the creation of early French haute cuisine.

France as a Culinary Model
 France is perhaps the model of how nation-states are constructed
in the early modern period. It becomes territorially intact. The
power of the king becomes greater than any of the nobles under
his jurisdiction. It has a national army paid for by taxes. France is,
therefore, one of the fi rst countries to have a monopoly on violence.
Noble warriors have become courtiers, which probably explains
why manners appear in Europe.

 Like in Spain, there is a class of people in France with a lot of money

to spend, but there is also a middle class of wealthy merchants,

townsmen, and wealthy farmers providing vegetables, cheeses, or

wine to the cities. This class will be especially important in the 18th

century and in the French Revolution.

 The reason that France had a bourgeoisie while Spain didn’t has to

do with government policy. Spain spent a fortune fi ghting wars—

mostly over religion. They also thought that because they had silver

coming from the New World, they could spend as much as they

wanted and never run out. They were mistaken and eventually

ran out of cash, which was combined with a bad tax policy,

depopulation, rights granted to nobles, and incompetent kings who

were very poorly advised by greedy ministers.