Rebecca L. Spang - The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture, With a New Preface: 135 (Harvard Historical Studies)

Harvard Historical Studies 135

Published under the auspices

of the Department of History

from the income of the

Paul Revere Frothingham Bequest

Robert Louis Stroock Fund

Henry Warren Torrey Fund

The Board of Syndics of Harvard University Press

has awarded this book the twenty-third annual

Thomas J. Wilson Prize, honoring the late director

of the Press. The prize is awarded to the book

chosen by the Syndics as the best first book

accepted by the Press during the calendar year.

The Invention of the Restaurant

Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture

With a New Preface

Rebecca L. Spang

Foreword by Adam Gopnik

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England

Copyright 2000 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College

Foreword and Preface to the 2020 Paperback Edition copyright 2020 by the Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College

All rights reserved

First Harvard University Press edition, 2000

First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 2001

Cover photograph: Warchi | iStock | Getty Images Plus

Cover design: Lisa Roberts

978-0-674-24177-0 (pbk.)

978-0-674-24401-6 (EPUB)

978-0-674-24404-7 (MOBI)

978-0-674-24399-6 (PDF)

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Spang, Rebecca L., 1961

The invention of the restaurant : Paris and modern gastronomic culture / Rebecca L. Spang.

p. cm. (Harvard historical studies ; 135)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-674-00064-1 (cloth)

ISBN 0-674-00685-2 (pbk.)

1. RestaurantsFranceParisHistory18th century.

2. RestaurantsFranceParisHistory19th century.

3. Food habitsFranceParisHistory18th century.

4. Food habitsFranceParisHistory19th century.

5. Paris (France)Social life and customs.

I. Title. II. Harvard historical studies ; v. 135.

TX910.F8 S667 2000

647.954436109033dc21 99-053378

RESTAURANT: Food or remedy that has the property of restoring lost strength to a sickly or tired individual. Consomm and extract of partridge are excellent restaurants. Wine, brandy, and cordials are all good restaurants for those whose spirits are drained. Some restaurants are distilled from the juices of light, flavorful meats combined with soft white bread, stimulating waters and powders, conserves, electuaries, and other good and sweet-smelling ingredients. Aspic is a sort of restaurant, but it is more nourishing and of a firmer consistency than a restaurant, which is liquid.

FURETIRE, DICTIONNAIRE UNIVERSEL (1708)

Recipe for Quintessence or Restaurant: Place several slices of onion, a little beef marrow, and some nice, white veal in a well-tinned and very clean casserole; on top of the veal place several clean and defatted ham rinds and then some slices of carrot and parsnip. Take a healthy chicken, very recently killed, and clean it thoroughly inside and out; cut it into pieces and then crush them; place them, still warm, in your kettle, and then put a few more strips of veal and ham rind. Note that for two pintes [approximately two quarts] of this quintessence, you will need only about four or five pounds of veal and perhaps four ounces of ham, in addition to the chicken. All being well arranged in your casserole, add a glass of bouillon; seal the kettle tightly, and put it on a high flame. If you place it first over low heat the meat yields its juices but does not brown, so then the liquid sticks and clots to the meat such that it hardens during the cooking process and does not fall to the bottom of the pan to form the restaurant.

When the meat has browned, place it over a moderate flame to sweat for three-quarters of an hour. Be careful that nothing sticks to the pan, and occasionally moisten it with a bit of bouillon, just enough so that the restaurant is neither too bitter nor too strong, but sweet, creamy, and proper for a variety of sauces, which ordinarily are made with ingredients that have their own taste and scent. Many cooks might put strongly flavored items in this quintessence, such as garlic, cloves, basil, mushrooms, etcetera, but I prefer the simpler fashion as I believe it to be the best both for taste and for health.

MARIN, LES DONS DE COMUS (1739)

RESTAURATEURS: Restaurateurs are those who have the skill of making true consomms, called restaurants or the princes bouillons, and who have the right to sell all sorts of creams, rice and vermicelli soups, fresh eggs, macaroni, stewed capons, confitures, compotes, and other delicate and salutary dishes.

These new establishments, which from the beginning have been called Restaurants or Houses of Health, owe their 1766 institution in this capital to Messieurs Roze and Pontaill.

The first of these Restaurants, which in no way cedes anything to the most beautiful cafs, was opened on the rue des Poulies; but not being in a favorable enough locale, it was transferred to the rue Saint Honor, htel dAligre, where it is run with the same success, and on the same principles of cleanliness, decency, and honesty that must always form the base of this type of business.

The price of each item is specific and fixed; one may be served at any hour. Ladies are admitted and may have their catered dinners prepared for a set and moderate price. This establishment has for its slogan this charming couplet:

Hic sapid titillant juscula blanda palatum,

Hic datur effaetis pectoribusque salus.

[Here are tasty sauces to titillate your bland palate,

Here the effete find healthy chests.]

[MATHURIN ROZE DE CHANTOISEAU], TABLETTES DE RENOMME OU ALMANACH GNRAL DINDICATION (1773)

RESTAURANT, adj., that which restores or repairs strength. restorative remedy. restorative potion. restorative food.

It is more generally used as a substantive. Wine and bouillon are good restaurants.

It is particularly said of a very tasty consomm, or a meat extract.

By extension, the establishment of a restaurateur. A new restaurant just opened on this street. He runs a restaurant.

RESTAURATEUR, noun, he or she who repairs or re-establishes. It is rarely used, except for cities and public monuments. This city had been ruined, and the prince rebuilt it. He is its restaurateur.

It is more often used in the moral sense. This prince is the restaurateur of literature and the arts. That abb was the restaurateur of the prior discipline to his order. Restaurateur of liberty, commerce, of law and order, etc.

Restaurateur is also used for a cook-caterer who provides foods at all hours, the type and price of which are indicated on a sort of placard, and which are served by the portion. to have dinner at a restaurateurs; the menu of a restaurateur.

DICTIONNAIRE DE LACADMIE FRANAISE (SIXTH EDITION, 1835)