A Revolution in Taste
The Rise of French Cuisine, 1650–1800

Susan Pinkard traces the roots and development of the French culinary revolution to many different historical trends.

Susan Pinkard (Author)

9780521139960, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 14 January 2010

334 pages
22.3 x 14.5 x 1.9 cm, 0.42 kg

'The 'revolution' narrated by Susan Pinkard is that which launched a new way of thinking about, and in part doing, cookery between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries … [a] fine book …'

Modern French habits of cooking, eating, and drinking were born in the ancien régime, radically breaking with culinary traditions that originated in antiquity and creating a new aesthetic. This new culinary culture saw food and wine as important links between human beings and nature. Authentic foodstuffs and simple preparations became the hallmarks of the modern style. Susan Pinkard traces the roots and development of this culinary revolution to many different historical trends, including changes in material culture, social transformations, medical theory and practice, and the Enlightenment. Pinkard illuminates the complex cultural meaning of food in this history of the new French cooking from its origins in the 1650s through the emergence of cuisine bourgeoise and the original nouvelle cuisine in the decades before 1789. This book also discusses the evolution of culinary techniques and includes historical recipes adapted for today's kitchens.

Part I. Before the Culinary Revolution: 1. The ancient roots of medieval cooking
2. Opulence and misery in the Renaissance
Part II. Towards a New Culinary Aesthetic: 3. Foundations of change, 1600–1650
4. The French kitchen in the 1650s
5. Refined consumption, 1660–1735
Part III. Cooking, Eating, and Drinking in the Enlightenment, 1735–1789: 6. Simplicity and authenticity
7. The revolution in wine.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]