Aristocracy’s sport finds its way into art
CHAPTER 3. THE FOOD OF THE POOR
Don’t enquire too closely about what goes into the sausage
CHAPTER 4. FEASTS AT VERSAILLES
Roast peacock, larks’ tongues in honey and Louis XIV performs for his guests
CHAPTER 5. FISHING FOR COMPLIMENTS
François Vatel’s suicide over the disgrace of the missing fish
But first, Louis XVI grabbed the choicest morsels with his fingers
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin influences Matisse, Cézanne and Picasso
CHAPTER 8. THE DINNER AT VARENNES
Gourmand King Louis XVI becomes prisoner of innkeeper Monsieur Sauce
CHAPTER 9. A PAINTER IN A PEAR TREE
Cézanne conquers Paris with an apple
CHAPTER 10. THE HUMBLER POISONS
“Come quickly, I am tasting the stars!”—Dom Pérignon
CHAPTER 11. CHEESE AS A NATIONAL SYMBOL
“How can you govern a country that has 246 varieties of cheese?”—Charles de Gaulle
CHAPTER 12. THE RISE OF THE RESTAURANT
“I live on good soup, not on fine words”—Molière
CHAPTER 14. AN ARMY RUNS ON ITS STOMACH
Dining with Napoleon Bonaparte
CHAPTER 15. ABSINTHE, THE GREEN FAIRY
“You see things as they really are”—Oscar Wilde
CHAPTER 16. THE IMPORTANCE OF BREAD
Jean-François Millet’s The Gleaners
Lunch in the garden with Claude Monet
Henri Matisse’s codfish paste and devil’s potatoes
CHAPTER 19. SETTING MEALS TO MUSIC
Paris café life in the operas of Puccini and Rossini
CHAPTER 20. THE ZOO IS ON THE MENU
Voisin’s Christmas feast of 1870
CHAPTER 21. ON THE FRENCH RIVIERA
Renoir, Colette, Picasso, Fitzgerald and Hemingway enjoy the flavors of the Côte d’Azur
Dalí, Buñuel and cannibal fantasies
CHAPTER 24. SHAKEN BUT NOT STIRRED
Add liquor, jazz and Josephine Baker
CHAPTER 25. MELTED CAMEMBERT AND LIMP FRIED EGGS
Salvador Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory
Surviving the German Occupation by rationing, foraging and “Party Surprise”
CHAPTER 27. THE CHICKEN FROM HELL
New French favorites from India, Russia, China and Vietnam
CHAPTER 28. STARS OF THE STOVE
Carême and Escoffier to Soyer and Child