Introductory Guide: Why Napoleon?

The Dawn of Gastronomy

By Anne Chotzinoff Grossman and Lisa Grossman Thomas
Authors of Lobscouse and Spotted Dog (a gastronomic companion to Patrick O'Brian's novels)

A Cult is Born

Place: France. Time: 1800-1821.

The restaurant, born in the 1760's, comes into its own; architectural neo-Classicism makes its appearance on the dinner table; grown men write epic poems to their suppers.

France's love affair with her stomach reaches its zenith with the birth of gastronomy as an art form and a literary force -- thanks not only to Brillat-Savarin and his Physiology of Taste but even more to Alexandre-Balthasar-Laurent Grimod de la Reyniere, the inventor of restaurant criticism and founder of the tasting jury. These men consecrated their lives to raising self-indulgence to a high artistic plane.

The food for all this elevated thought is produced by the former chefs of the royals and aristocrats, now either running restaurants of their own or cooking for the new aristocracy of the empire. Their greatness is distilled in Minister of Foreign Affairs Charles Maurice de Talleyrand's culinary henchman, Marie-Antoine Careme, the Darwin of sauces and the grandfather-in-art of Escoffier. Careme pronounces pastry a branch of architecture, and he takes it to unprecedented heights of extravagance; on the other hand, he embraces a new simplicity in flavoring: under his aegis, foods actually begin to taste almost like themselves for the first time in history.

The sumptuous suppers of the Talleyrand/Careme team play a pivotal role in political events. (History suggests that one of them may even be responsible for the Bourbon restoration. Not for nothing does Careme declare cuisine "the spearhead of French diplomacy.") The influence of French gourmandise is felt throughout the world. Tsar Alexander I of Russia (one of Careme's many crowned employers) says: "Careme taught us how to eat; before he came we knew nothing of the art."

The foods of the era read like a Who's Who of politics, science, society, arts and letters: dishes are named Montholon, Desaix, Beauharnais, Bagration, Rothschild, Talleyrand, Berlioz, and of course Rossini. It grieves us to report, however, that neither the Napoleon pastry nor the Beef Wellington of the enemy camp bears any direct relation to its namesake. Beef Wellington came into being in 1905, and apparently derives its name from its resemblance to a polished Wellington boot. As for Napoleons (or mille-feuilles, as they are known in France), is it really possible that they were Napoleon's favorite pastry, and that the effects of a surfeit thereof on the eve of the battle caused his defeat at Waterloo? Almost certainly not: they were not invented until 1892.

More Napoleon: Introductory Guide

Back to Table of Contents -- Napoleon #17
Back to Napoleon List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 2001 by Napoleon LLC.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
The full text and graphics from other military history magazines and gaming magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com
Order Napoleon magazine direct