Funny, instructive, scholarly, a bit of a catch-all (the Yule log is stuck between Escoffier and Carême… we wonder why), elegantly laid out, this “ great history of gastronomy » (“French”, we should add, because that’s what it is) is signed by a historian who knows his subject. We owe him in particular the historical developments of “We will taste Paris” by François-Régis Gaudry, with whom he collaborates for his Inter show and who wrote the preface. How did we eat in the Middle Ages, in the Renaissance, at the court of the kings of France. What are the variations of hare à la royale, pot au feu or floating island? What are the sources and uses of Chantilly cream, chocolate éclair, mille-feuille or coq au vin? In short, almost everything is there. Including copious developments on legendary houses, such as the Tour d’Argent, Fouquet’s and the Ritz. But on the origin of bistros, Loïc Bienassis is content to assert that it “ remains mysterious“… while Gaudry’s great book on Paris clearly cited the two origins, those of the Cossacks landing in Paris exclaiming “ bistro, bistro« ! (« quickly, quickly » in Russian) and its Poitou etymology of “bistraud”. Or that of the rum baba, generally attributed to Stanislas, king of Poland in exile in Nancy. We will again note an initial inaccuracy in the prologue on the first name of Curnonsky cited in reference (Edmond instead of Maurice-Edmond), an error corrected on page 113 where Prince Cur is again called upon, but correctly this time . Suffice to say that this richly researched book which provides a tantalizing panorama of the culinary art from its origins to the present day, from Taillevent to Joël Robuchon, and from Beauvilliers to Pierre Hermé will make a lovely gift for an apprentice gourmet.
The great history of gastronomy, by Loïc Bienassis (Larousse, 254 pages, €35.50)
