November 20, 2025 • 24 mins
Liberté, Égalité… Gastronomie: The French Revolution and the Birth of Modern Cuisine
The French Revolution wasn’t just fought in the streets, it was fought at the table. As bread riots shook Paris and hunger fueled rebellion, the collapse of the aristocracy also dismantled an entire culinary world. Former royal chefs opened the first public restaurants, feeding citizens instead of kings and redefining what it meant to dine in a new democracy.
In this episode, Eva and Maite explore how food became a language of equality and national pride and how revolutionary ideals gave rise not only to modern dining, but also to the first democratic cookbooks. These cookbooks, written for the public rather than the palace, captured the spirit of liberty and gastronomy that would shape not only France, but the way the world eats today.
This is part 1 of a 3 part series called, How Eating Shapes History! Join us next week as we explore the American Revolution.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
My name is Evil Longoria and I am My de
Gomez Racon and welcome to Hungry for History, a podcast
that explores our past and present through food.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
On every episode, we'll talk about the history of some
of our favorite dishes, ingredients, and beverages from our culture.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
So make yourself at home. Ewen Brochel.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
So many people have asked me about podcasting, and I
was like, you have to really love what you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
If you're just going to.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Go and interview random people that you don't care about,
I do not recommend it, but if you really I go.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Every time this is on my calendar, I look forward
to it. I'm so excited for.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
This episode and what we've got planned because this is
a three part series.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Is that what it is?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
This is a three part series about food and revolutions
because we're seeing so many parallels in today's world right
since studying the past helps us understand the present, and
other people throughout the ages have navigated similar challenges.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I'm in France, so I think it's befitting that we
are kicking this off with the French Revolution and then
next week we're going to do the American Revolution, and
then we're going to end our three part series with
of course, mechic go, mechi go. I'm so excited about
French Revolution because it's all really fresh in my head.
We just wrapped our eight episodes of Searching for France,
(01:25):
and I've been traveling and studying and learning, and oh
my gosh, there are so many parallels to what's happening today,
but also the birth of so much in fine dining
and even in restaurants, menus, brasseries, bistros like so you know,
(01:46):
so many things come from the French Revolution and this period,
and food tells the story, it tells the economic hardship,
it tells about political oppression, and so I feel like
this three part series is super timely because we are
going to find a lot of similarities as to what
is happening now and how it's going to affect our
(02:09):
food culture, not just socioeconomic political geopolitical issues as well.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Absolutely, and also just on that note, we're doing a
whole series on restaurant history and on food critics, and
it's all related to the French Revolution. So let's start
with defining a revolution, like, what is it? How did
it happen? Let's start. Yeah, because a revolution doesn't just happen.
It's a revolution is actually.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
The breaking point, right, Like it's like enough, So a
lot of things have had to happen for a revolution
to happen. French revolution, American revolution, Mexican revolution. I mean,
people are like not cool with status quo or how
things are going, and they want to create something new.
So it's this forcible overthrow of a government or the
overthrow of the social order and the desire for a
(03:02):
new way, a new system.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
And would you agree, yes, I could agree. And it's
like enough people have to say that's it. We need
a radical change because there are people are hungry, people
are oppressed because of so many reasons, and they and
they differ from a war. So I think that that's
something that I was a little bit okay that I
really had to think about, Like what's the difference between
(03:26):
a revolution and a war? So, right, a revolution is
this radical sudden change in power.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Or social structure, social structure.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, and it's led by the people against an existing system. Right,
it's like the people overthrow the existing regime because they
need something different.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Right, if there's a dictatorship, we.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Need democracy, monarchy to republic and a war is a
conflict between nations and organized groups, and it's all often
like large scale violence, and it's not necessarily about internal change,
and so it can be over territory or power or ideologies.
So they're much, you know, bigger, like the Second World War.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
You know what's happening today? Which is so interesting in
these two definitions. As we're prepping for this episode, you know,
a revolution can't happen without people, like the people have
risen and the people there's an uprising of desire for change,
like people really fuel and are the engine of a revolution,
(04:34):
a war between these nations or organized It's like today,
I feel like we Americans are in so many wars
that I have zero desire to.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Be in, Like why why is happening?
Speaker 1 (04:49):
And I don't feel like, you know, we are a
part of those There's are decisions that I wish we
could help stop, I wish we could help prevent, and
I feel power in.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
All of the wars that are going on today.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
And that's what's so frustrating because I do feel so
powerless as well, and these are decisions that are beyond
our control. But revolutions, you know, that's different, and you
know you wonder with everything that's happening in the US
right now, these deep political polarization, these extreme economic inequality,
(05:23):
racial injustice, social injustice. There's just this erosion of democracy
and mistrust and disinformation. So it's like, oh, wait, pinora
revolution be spurred here in the US. You know, it
just makes you wonder.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
In order to talk about the French Revolution, you have
to talk about Louis, the Louise, the Louise, Yeah, all
of them. Louis the fourteenth, Louis, the fifteenth, Louis the
sixteenth was really where everything came to a head in
France and this huge social inequality. There was an economic crisis,
(06:00):
you know, the let them eat cake mentality, and also
the monarchy's inability to reform or respond to any of
these crises that were happening in France at the time,
and France was at war with everybody, like everybody, and
so a lot of this led to the French Revolution,
which was in seventeen eighty nine. But if you look
(06:22):
at you know, Louis the thirteen fourteen, fifteen sixteen, that
was like thirteen hundreds, fourteen hundreds, fifteen hundreds, and a
lot of stuff happened Louis the fourteenth is famously known
for wanting.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Protocol and etiquette.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
It was actually Catherine Medici, this Italian aristocrat who came
to the French court.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
And before.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Before she arrived, the eating in the court was a buffet.
It was meat on the table, soup on the table,
cheeses on the table, fruits on the table, desserts on
the table, and people would grab with their hands and eat.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
And when she arrived, she's.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Like, what is this chaos? This is madness. You eat
in courses. Soup is first, and it was like the
birth of these courses, and she introduced the fork.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
So she married Henry the Second fifteen thirty three. We
talked about her a little bit in our sugar episode
when we were talking about sugar sculptures. So he was
not at the wedding, so they made a sugar sculpture
of him, and so she married his sugar sculpture. Anyhow,
it's a total aside, but she brought the fork into
(07:34):
France from you.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Know, can you? I was like, what were they doing
before that? They were waiting with her, eating with their hands, but.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Only eating up to their second knuckle, and they kept
the pinky up because they dip their pinky into the spices.
So when people, you know, when you have your little
pinky out, it's because of that, they say that they
kept that clean.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Well, I want to mention also, so before the French
Revolution and during Louis the fourteenth rain food was very
spicy and not like hot spicy, but full of spice
and flavor because of a salting and conservation, because obviously
food could go bad. And so that's one thing Louis
(08:19):
the fourteenth is credited of doing, as well as taking
away seasoning and letting the food shine. And he also
brought about this idea that and again this was just
for the monarchy and the court is food for enjoyment
as opposed to sustenance, And that was introduced in the courts,
(08:42):
but not with the people, right, and people are still
needed sustenance, and you know, and they said during this time,
this is why France was so good at bread making
or became the best bakers in the world, is because
that was the cheapest form to eat.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
And they just got so.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
The poor peasants and people could only make bread, and
they got really good at it because they made so
much of it.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I want to add to that the spices, and we
talked I think about this a little bit in our
spice episode last season. When spices and with colonization, spices
were no longer a symbol of status, people could afford it.
So then Louis the fourteenth under his court and he
moved the court to Versailles. He was like, wait, now
(09:28):
spices are available, so what can we do that's different.
So they started cooking with butter and lemon and herbs,
and food became more like you said about pleasure, about
the mouth feel. It became sensual, and that is something
that's so French. And then the cookbooks that they were
writing at the time, they and all of the other
(09:50):
courts around Europe wanted to emulate them. But like you said,
this was only for them.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Let's talk about the lavishness of the court, because this
is obviously a big catalyst for the French Revolution.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Was this inequality in survival?
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Yeah, but the court was like all about flying dining
and you could actually go and watch the royal family dine.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
You couldn't eat, but you could watch them enjoy these
elaborate multi course dishes that were brought in by servants,
and there was usually music, and you could, you could
observe this like that.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Would be upsetting. I can see why that would be upsetting.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
It was a performance, like was basically performance hard and
people used to, you know, during the court of Louis
the fourteenth, they used to line up and then people
would bow to the food of the king and it
was brought to the table, and it was all of
these courses and everything was served in these gorgeous silver
(10:59):
you know vessels, and yes you could, and you would
just watch them in silence while they while they dined,
and they did these these these sermon I guess they're ceremonies,
these performances basically to remind the people of.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Their place in the hierarchy.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
But there's so much and moving forward to you know,
Louis the sixteenth, who was married to Marie Antoinette, right,
she built this faux rustic village on the grounds of Versailles,
and she pretended to be a peasant and she dined
these peasant style like with like milk and eggs and
produce that were almost like there.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
She was almost like she was mocking real poverty.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Right exactly, And of course that's how the people saw it,
and she was you know, she was mocking them.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
And then so is this true that she did not
say let them meat cake? She never said let them
meat cake.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
There's no evidence that she actually said it, but you
know it's reinforced with everything that she did, yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Doing, I mean, if there's history of that. She used
to mock poverty.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
So the bread riots, so bread was.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Central to the French diet and especially the poor they became.
This is a big reason why they became such amazing
bread makers throughout the world is because that's all they had.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
And these there was these food shortages.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
And rising bread prices because there was poor harvest and
there was bad economic policies, and there was this widespread
spread hunger at the time.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
And it led to this Flower War.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
In seventeen seventy five, which was, you know, ten years
before the French Revolution.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
The Flower Wars, it was a series of riots.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
So there was about three hundred riots that swept all
the entire country because of rising bread prices and food shortages.
And this was so it was about ten years before
and it was considered one of the first clear signs
that the public was done right, there needed to be changed.
And then the final one of these riots was the
(13:09):
Women's March on Versailles, and this was in seventeen eighty nine,
which is a year that the revolution broke out, and
this was a huge turning point. So this group of
women of hungry women, discontent women walked from Paris. They
marched thousands of women from Paris all the way to
the Palace of Versailles. They stormed the palace and they
(13:30):
called for Louis the sixteenth in Queen and Marie Antoinette
to return to Paris so they could be closely observed
and held accountable by the people. So basically they left,
they were relocated to the Tuileries Palace and they were
placed under house arrest. So this march, it was thousands
of women that got together, marched into Versailles and demanded
(13:55):
that their rulers be held accountable. And this was the
first real demonstration of this challenge to the monarchy. It
started off as another brad riot, but it became this
huge statement and it really marked the beginning of the
fall of the ancient regime. Right, So it's like a
(14:16):
group of hungry women. It really is just incredible to me.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Yeah, I do find that amazing and it's usually usually
womenen in a lot of places. You know, Argentina had
that movement and it was all the mothers, and Cuba
had the movement.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Where you know, the mothers worldwide. I mean, there's so
many moments in.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
History where you look to the women and mothers to
really go enough, like enough is enough. And I really
also I loved in this era during the revolution, public
figures or politicians that were for the French Revolution, not
part of the monarchy, actually preferred to be seen dining
(15:01):
eating simply bread, soup, beans, eating what what they would
say that people of virtue would eat. You know, they
wanted to be seen eating the food of the working
people to show solidarity, and it was like a statement
of I stand with the nation, not nobility. That they
lived by the revolutionary values and they shared meals and
(15:22):
this became a tool of unity and protest and propaganda.
More than nourishment, it just became a symbol of equality
and a collective identity. And I like how in this
moment onions and cabbage represented simplicity, and so they were
often included in patriotic meals, simple root vegetables. You know,
(15:43):
the leaks, the turnups, carrots, potatoes. They became a symbol
of the revolutionary virtue.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
So what were soup.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
Kitchens called bouyons? And is that why a buyon is
called a bouyon. Yeah, and it was, that's where it
comes from. Yeah, it was set up, you know, they
were set up. But these mouleions, these soup kitchens were
set up for the poor. And in seventeen ninety three,
the French government passed a law called the Bread of
Equality Decree and required that all bakers make only one
(16:12):
kind of bread for everybody. Because before the revolution, the
ate the wealthy.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Eight fine white bread, and the poor had to eat
dark bread, whatever made from whatever they could get their
hands on. And this new law said, you know what, no,
this is the bread that's going to be made for everybody.
So it removed this symbol of class from bread. That's
so beautiful. I think it's like, oh my gosh, yes,
(16:37):
it's it's bread for everybody.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
The same thing happened with like flour, butter, meat, like
they set they set price controls.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Yeah, so amazing, it's so incredible.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Yeah, it's so incredible, and it's like, yeah, everybody needs
everybody has the right to eat and everybody has the
right to eat.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
You know, well, this.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Is what about fascinating being here doing searching for France
is the start of restaurants and how the word came
to be and the concept which does come from France
was because after the French Revolution, the court had so
many baker's chef partisserie plosonery, like the person who does
(17:19):
just the fish, the person who does just the meat,
the person who does just the fowl. Like, they had
so many specialists in the court kitchens that once you know,
the monarchy fell, we saw all of these chefs out
of work and this led to the rise of restaurants and.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Public dining, which was this huge new concept.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Because they're like, all I never know how to do
is like baked bread or cook meat, and so prior
to the revolution, this fine dining was just confined to aristocracy.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
I'm really, as you know, fascinated with cookbooks and how
obsessed more than fascinated.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
But we could really trace all of this through the cookbooks.
So there are many Yeah, but we've.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Talked about cookbooks in the past, but like this particular
moment in time is pretty interesting for the culinary landscape
to re reflected in a cookbook.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Pretty fascinating, really fascinating.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
And you mentioned, you know, Louis the sixth, the fourteenth
and the dining that we were talking about in the
in the in the beginning, there was this cookbook that
was written in sixteen fifty one, so well before the revolution,
La Cuisinier Francois by Lavarenn, and this was foundational to
French cuisine. This was written under the under Louis the fourteenth.
(18:54):
I mean, this book was translated to every language, but
it continued to be published after the revolution because with
the rise of restaurants and really the professionalization of cooking,
chefs still really wanted this book. There's another one that
was published before the revolution, The Cuisinier Bourgeois, published in
(19:17):
seventeen forty six, and that was reissued and it aimed
to make French cuisine more accessible. And he uses the
name quisinier, which is feminine in the title.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Yeah, yeah, cuisinia. I think my friend is terrible. No,
you're you're saying it in Spanish. You're saying it in Spanish,
cuisinnier cuisinie.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
But then after the revolution, cookbooks become more instructional, step
by steps they become much more practical. They're you know,
they're they combine etiquette and economy and just culinary advice.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
And these are typically domestic guides that.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Were written by women or for women, right, so they
were cookbooks, but they were also domestic manuals.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Well, you know the book, the book that everybody has
in their kitchen is by Escofia. We didn't yeah about him,
and he did, like the Bible, every kitchen you go in,
not just France, in Spain, in Mexico, everybody has Escofia's book.
And he came later, you know, he was he was
like born in eighteen forty six, died in nineteen thirty five,
(20:19):
so he was He's responsible for so much the mother
sauces where everything stems from oh my god, now I'm
forgetting a holidays, baschamel, all of the mother sauces that
become other sauces, and then also the brigade system, which
we'll talk about it and.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
We'll talk about it, we'll talk about it in our
restaurant episode.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
But yeah, in the restaurant episode. But was like the dude,
he was the guy. He was the dude. Yeah, he was,
you're right, because my point is like cookbooks weren't just cookbooks.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
It was like etiquette had us at the table, how
the kitchen should be run, how to the front of
the house should be run.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
These are some sauces you shouldn't like.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
It was very comprehensive, that totally, totally, really, and it
really stays the standard for the professionalization of cooking kind
of around around the world. I wanted to mention one
other book the allowed to Cuisinier was that eighty fourteen.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Yeah, but laf de Cuisinie. There you go.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
You say it on all the titles, you say all
the titles, so you could say that this guy's name
Antoine Bouvier.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
He was a chef, He opened one of Barris's first restaurants.
He bridged this professional technique and home cooking.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
So there are lots of interesting books that were being
written during this time.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
We could do two hours on the French Revolution and
its effect that it has on food, on an ingredients,
and also on fine dining, because it affected so many
of those things.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
But I think the thing that it mosted was restaurants.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
And so I'm so excited for that episode later because
that's a whole can of worms that we're going to
open up and how if you've had anything sooux.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Flayd saute.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Eddy.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
You know, all these techniques and.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Terms and menu and so media and all of these
things come from this era and time. And I really
I'm happy we're going to do an entire episode on
the birth of restaurants, beistros, cafes, rasseries, like all of
those things that really was sparked by the French Revolution.
But while I was in France, I was on a
vineyard in this monastery, this abbey where all wine comes
(22:27):
from from the monks, and they said, that's the Jefferson tree.
That's the Jefferson tree. It was a tree he brought
over and planted. And so I'm fascinated to talk about
the ties between Thomas Jefferson being the ambassador to France,
bringing over wine, bringing over techniques, bringing over breadmakers to
(22:48):
the United States. So what was happening in America at
this time, and how did.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
The American Revolution affect food culture.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
I'm so happy you asked about that, because there's so
many interesting stories specifically related to Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin
Franklin who lived in Paris in the years leading up
to the French Revolution. Before we wrap up today, let's
take a quick look at what was happening in Mexico
around the time of the French Revolution. Back then, Mexico,
(23:19):
then known as New Spain, had been under Spanish colonial
rule for over two hundred years, living within a strict
cast system that favored white Spanish born elites or roccrio
jos beastisos mulatos and indigenous communities. The French Revolution proved
that radical change was possible, and its ideals of liberty, equality,
(23:41):
and constitutional government crossed the Atlantic.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
In Mexico.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Those ideas lit a spark, one that would eventually fuel
a rebellion against Spain and lead to the War of Independence.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Of eighteen ten.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
The Mexican Revolution wouldn't happen for another one hundred years.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Thanks for listening, you guys, listen to part two. Bye,
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Hungry for History is a Hyphenite media production in partnership
with Iheart's Michael Tura podcast network.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
For more of your favorite shows, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
My name is Evil Longoria and I am My de
Gomez Racon and welcome to Hungry for History, a podcast
that explores our past and present through food.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
On every episode, we'll talk about the history of some
of our favorite dishes, ingredients, and beverages from our culture.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
So make yourself at home. Ewen Brochel.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
So many people have asked me about podcasting, and I
was like, you have to really love what you're talking about.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
If you're just going to.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Go and interview random people that you don't care about,
I do not recommend it, but if you really I go.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Every time this is on my calendar, I look forward
to it. I'm so excited for.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
This episode and what we've got planned because this is
a three part series.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Is that what it is?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
This is a three part series about food and revolutions
because we're seeing so many parallels in today's world right
since studying the past helps us understand the present, and
other people throughout the ages have navigated similar challenges.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
I'm in France, so I think it's befitting that we
are kicking this off with the French Revolution and then
next week we're going to do the American Revolution, and
then we're going to end our three part series with
of course, mechic go, mechi go. I'm so excited about
French Revolution because it's all really fresh in my head.
We just wrapped our eight episodes of Searching for France,
(01:25):
and I've been traveling and studying and learning, and oh
my gosh, there are so many parallels to what's happening today,
but also the birth of so much in fine dining
and even in restaurants, menus, brasseries, bistros like so you know,
(01:46):
so many things come from the French Revolution and this period,
and food tells the story, it tells the economic hardship,
it tells about political oppression, and so I feel like
this three part series is super timely because we are
going to find a lot of similarities as to what
is happening now and how it's going to affect our
(02:09):
food culture, not just socioeconomic political geopolitical issues as well.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Absolutely, and also just on that note, we're doing a
whole series on restaurant history and on food critics, and
it's all related to the French Revolution. So let's start
with defining a revolution, like, what is it? How did
it happen? Let's start. Yeah, because a revolution doesn't just happen.
It's a revolution is actually.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
The breaking point, right, Like it's like enough, So a
lot of things have had to happen for a revolution
to happen. French revolution, American revolution, Mexican revolution. I mean,
people are like not cool with status quo or how
things are going, and they want to create something new.
So it's this forcible overthrow of a government or the
overthrow of the social order and the desire for a
(03:02):
new way, a new system.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
And would you agree, yes, I could agree. And it's
like enough people have to say that's it. We need
a radical change because there are people are hungry, people
are oppressed because of so many reasons, and they and
they differ from a war. So I think that that's
something that I was a little bit okay that I
really had to think about, Like what's the difference between
(03:26):
a revolution and a war? So, right, a revolution is
this radical sudden change in power.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Or social structure, social structure.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, and it's led by the people against an existing system. Right,
it's like the people overthrow the existing regime because they
need something different.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Right, if there's a dictatorship, we.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Need democracy, monarchy to republic and a war is a
conflict between nations and organized groups, and it's all often
like large scale violence, and it's not necessarily about internal change,
and so it can be over territory or power or ideologies.
So they're much, you know, bigger, like the Second World War.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
You know what's happening today? Which is so interesting in
these two definitions. As we're prepping for this episode, you know,
a revolution can't happen without people, like the people have
risen and the people there's an uprising of desire for change,
like people really fuel and are the engine of a revolution,
(04:34):
a war between these nations or organized It's like today,
I feel like we Americans are in so many wars
that I have zero desire to.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Be in, Like why why is happening?
Speaker 1 (04:49):
And I don't feel like, you know, we are a
part of those There's are decisions that I wish we
could help stop, I wish we could help prevent, and
I feel power in.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
All of the wars that are going on today.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
And that's what's so frustrating because I do feel so
powerless as well, and these are decisions that are beyond
our control. But revolutions, you know, that's different, and you
know you wonder with everything that's happening in the US
right now, these deep political polarization, these extreme economic inequality,
(05:23):
racial injustice, social injustice. There's just this erosion of democracy
and mistrust and disinformation. So it's like, oh, wait, pinora
revolution be spurred here in the US. You know, it
just makes you wonder.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
In order to talk about the French Revolution, you have
to talk about Louis, the Louise, the Louise, Yeah, all
of them. Louis the fourteenth, Louis, the fifteenth, Louis the
sixteenth was really where everything came to a head in
France and this huge social inequality. There was an economic crisis,
(06:00):
you know, the let them eat cake mentality, and also
the monarchy's inability to reform or respond to any of
these crises that were happening in France at the time,
and France was at war with everybody, like everybody, and
so a lot of this led to the French Revolution,
which was in seventeen eighty nine. But if you look
(06:22):
at you know, Louis the thirteen fourteen, fifteen sixteen, that
was like thirteen hundreds, fourteen hundreds, fifteen hundreds, and a
lot of stuff happened Louis the fourteenth is famously known
for wanting.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
Protocol and etiquette.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
It was actually Catherine Medici, this Italian aristocrat who came
to the French court.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
And before.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Before she arrived, the eating in the court was a buffet.
It was meat on the table, soup on the table,
cheeses on the table, fruits on the table, desserts on
the table, and people would grab with their hands and eat.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
And when she arrived, she's.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Like, what is this chaos? This is madness. You eat
in courses. Soup is first, and it was like the
birth of these courses, and she introduced the fork.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
So she married Henry the Second fifteen thirty three. We
talked about her a little bit in our sugar episode
when we were talking about sugar sculptures. So he was
not at the wedding, so they made a sugar sculpture
of him, and so she married his sugar sculpture. Anyhow,
it's a total aside, but she brought the fork into
(07:34):
France from you.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Know, can you? I was like, what were they doing
before that? They were waiting with her, eating with their hands, but.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Only eating up to their second knuckle, and they kept
the pinky up because they dip their pinky into the spices.
So when people, you know, when you have your little
pinky out, it's because of that, they say that they
kept that clean.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Well, I want to mention also, so before the French
Revolution and during Louis the fourteenth rain food was very
spicy and not like hot spicy, but full of spice
and flavor because of a salting and conservation, because obviously
food could go bad. And so that's one thing Louis
(08:19):
the fourteenth is credited of doing, as well as taking
away seasoning and letting the food shine. And he also
brought about this idea that and again this was just
for the monarchy and the court is food for enjoyment
as opposed to sustenance, And that was introduced in the courts,
(08:42):
but not with the people, right, and people are still
needed sustenance, and you know, and they said during this time,
this is why France was so good at bread making
or became the best bakers in the world, is because
that was the cheapest form to eat.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
And they just got so.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
The poor peasants and people could only make bread, and
they got really good at it because they made so
much of it.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I want to add to that the spices, and we
talked I think about this a little bit in our
spice episode last season. When spices and with colonization, spices
were no longer a symbol of status, people could afford it.
So then Louis the fourteenth under his court and he
moved the court to Versailles. He was like, wait, now
(09:28):
spices are available, so what can we do that's different.
So they started cooking with butter and lemon and herbs,
and food became more like you said about pleasure, about
the mouth feel. It became sensual, and that is something
that's so French. And then the cookbooks that they were
writing at the time, they and all of the other
(09:50):
courts around Europe wanted to emulate them. But like you said,
this was only for them.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Let's talk about the lavishness of the court, because this
is obviously a big catalyst for the French Revolution.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Was this inequality in survival?
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Yeah, but the court was like all about flying dining
and you could actually go and watch the royal family dine.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
You couldn't eat, but you could watch them enjoy these
elaborate multi course dishes that were brought in by servants,
and there was usually music, and you could, you could
observe this like that.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Would be upsetting. I can see why that would be upsetting.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
It was a performance, like was basically performance hard and
people used to, you know, during the court of Louis
the fourteenth, they used to line up and then people
would bow to the food of the king and it
was brought to the table, and it was all of
these courses and everything was served in these gorgeous silver
(10:59):
you know vessels, and yes you could, and you would
just watch them in silence while they while they dined,
and they did these these these sermon I guess they're ceremonies,
these performances basically to remind the people of.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Their place in the hierarchy.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
But there's so much and moving forward to you know,
Louis the sixteenth, who was married to Marie Antoinette, right,
she built this faux rustic village on the grounds of Versailles,
and she pretended to be a peasant and she dined
these peasant style like with like milk and eggs and
produce that were almost like there.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
She was almost like she was mocking real poverty.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Right exactly, And of course that's how the people saw it,
and she was you know, she was mocking them.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
And then so is this true that she did not
say let them meat cake? She never said let them
meat cake.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
There's no evidence that she actually said it, but you
know it's reinforced with everything that she did, yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Doing, I mean, if there's history of that. She used
to mock poverty.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
So the bread riots, so bread was.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Central to the French diet and especially the poor they became.
This is a big reason why they became such amazing
bread makers throughout the world is because that's all they had.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
And these there was these food shortages.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
And rising bread prices because there was poor harvest and
there was bad economic policies, and there was this widespread
spread hunger at the time.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
And it led to this Flower War.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
In seventeen seventy five, which was, you know, ten years
before the French Revolution.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
The Flower Wars, it was a series of riots.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
So there was about three hundred riots that swept all
the entire country because of rising bread prices and food shortages.
And this was so it was about ten years before
and it was considered one of the first clear signs
that the public was done right, there needed to be changed.
And then the final one of these riots was the
(13:09):
Women's March on Versailles, and this was in seventeen eighty nine,
which is a year that the revolution broke out, and
this was a huge turning point. So this group of
women of hungry women, discontent women walked from Paris. They
marched thousands of women from Paris all the way to
the Palace of Versailles. They stormed the palace and they
(13:30):
called for Louis the sixteenth in Queen and Marie Antoinette
to return to Paris so they could be closely observed
and held accountable by the people. So basically they left,
they were relocated to the Tuileries Palace and they were
placed under house arrest. So this march, it was thousands
of women that got together, marched into Versailles and demanded
(13:55):
that their rulers be held accountable. And this was the
first real demonstration of this challenge to the monarchy. It
started off as another brad riot, but it became this
huge statement and it really marked the beginning of the
fall of the ancient regime. Right, So it's like a
(14:16):
group of hungry women. It really is just incredible to me.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Yeah, I do find that amazing and it's usually usually
womenen in a lot of places. You know, Argentina had
that movement and it was all the mothers, and Cuba
had the movement.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
Where you know, the mothers worldwide. I mean, there's so
many moments in.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
History where you look to the women and mothers to
really go enough, like enough is enough. And I really
also I loved in this era during the revolution, public
figures or politicians that were for the French Revolution, not
part of the monarchy, actually preferred to be seen dining
(15:01):
eating simply bread, soup, beans, eating what what they would
say that people of virtue would eat. You know, they
wanted to be seen eating the food of the working
people to show solidarity, and it was like a statement
of I stand with the nation, not nobility. That they
lived by the revolutionary values and they shared meals and
(15:22):
this became a tool of unity and protest and propaganda.
More than nourishment, it just became a symbol of equality
and a collective identity. And I like how in this
moment onions and cabbage represented simplicity, and so they were
often included in patriotic meals, simple root vegetables. You know,
(15:43):
the leaks, the turnups, carrots, potatoes. They became a symbol
of the revolutionary virtue.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
So what were soup.
Speaker 5 (15:51):
Kitchens called bouyons? And is that why a buyon is
called a bouyon. Yeah, and it was, that's where it
comes from. Yeah, it was set up, you know, they
were set up. But these mouleions, these soup kitchens were
set up for the poor. And in seventeen ninety three,
the French government passed a law called the Bread of
Equality Decree and required that all bakers make only one
(16:12):
kind of bread for everybody. Because before the revolution, the
ate the wealthy.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Eight fine white bread, and the poor had to eat
dark bread, whatever made from whatever they could get their
hands on. And this new law said, you know what, no,
this is the bread that's going to be made for everybody.
So it removed this symbol of class from bread. That's
so beautiful. I think it's like, oh my gosh, yes,
(16:37):
it's it's bread for everybody.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
The same thing happened with like flour, butter, meat, like
they set they set price controls.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Yeah, so amazing, it's so incredible.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Yeah, it's so incredible, and it's like, yeah, everybody needs
everybody has the right to eat and everybody has the
right to eat.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
You know, well, this.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Is what about fascinating being here doing searching for France
is the start of restaurants and how the word came
to be and the concept which does come from France
was because after the French Revolution, the court had so
many baker's chef partisserie plosonery, like the person who does
(17:19):
just the fish, the person who does just the meat,
the person who does just the fowl. Like, they had
so many specialists in the court kitchens that once you know,
the monarchy fell, we saw all of these chefs out
of work and this led to the rise of restaurants and.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Public dining, which was this huge new concept.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Because they're like, all I never know how to do
is like baked bread or cook meat, and so prior
to the revolution, this fine dining was just confined to aristocracy.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
I'm really, as you know, fascinated with cookbooks and how
obsessed more than fascinated.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
But we could really trace all of this through the cookbooks.
So there are many Yeah, but we've.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Talked about cookbooks in the past, but like this particular
moment in time is pretty interesting for the culinary landscape
to re reflected in a cookbook.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Pretty fascinating, really fascinating.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
And you mentioned, you know, Louis the sixth, the fourteenth
and the dining that we were talking about in the
in the in the beginning, there was this cookbook that
was written in sixteen fifty one, so well before the revolution,
La Cuisinier Francois by Lavarenn, and this was foundational to
French cuisine. This was written under the under Louis the fourteenth.
(18:54):
I mean, this book was translated to every language, but
it continued to be published after the revolution because with
the rise of restaurants and really the professionalization of cooking,
chefs still really wanted this book. There's another one that
was published before the revolution, The Cuisinier Bourgeois, published in
(19:17):
seventeen forty six, and that was reissued and it aimed
to make French cuisine more accessible. And he uses the
name quisinier, which is feminine in the title.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Yeah, yeah, cuisinia. I think my friend is terrible. No,
you're you're saying it in Spanish. You're saying it in Spanish,
cuisinnier cuisinie.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
But then after the revolution, cookbooks become more instructional, step
by steps they become much more practical. They're you know,
they're they combine etiquette and economy and just culinary advice.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
And these are typically domestic guides that.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Were written by women or for women, right, so they
were cookbooks, but they were also domestic manuals.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Well, you know the book, the book that everybody has
in their kitchen is by Escofia. We didn't yeah about him,
and he did, like the Bible, every kitchen you go in,
not just France, in Spain, in Mexico, everybody has Escofia's book.
And he came later, you know, he was he was
like born in eighteen forty six, died in nineteen thirty five,
(20:19):
so he was He's responsible for so much the mother
sauces where everything stems from oh my god, now I'm
forgetting a holidays, baschamel, all of the mother sauces that
become other sauces, and then also the brigade system, which
we'll talk about it and.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
We'll talk about it, we'll talk about it in our
restaurant episode.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
But yeah, in the restaurant episode. But was like the dude,
he was the guy. He was the dude. Yeah, he was,
you're right, because my point is like cookbooks weren't just cookbooks.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
It was like etiquette had us at the table, how
the kitchen should be run, how to the front of
the house should be run.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
These are some sauces you shouldn't like.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
It was very comprehensive, that totally, totally, really, and it
really stays the standard for the professionalization of cooking kind
of around around the world. I wanted to mention one
other book the allowed to Cuisinier was that eighty fourteen.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Yeah, but laf de Cuisinie. There you go.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
You say it on all the titles, you say all
the titles, so you could say that this guy's name
Antoine Bouvier.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
He was a chef, He opened one of Barris's first restaurants.
He bridged this professional technique and home cooking.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
So there are lots of interesting books that were being
written during this time.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
We could do two hours on the French Revolution and
its effect that it has on food, on an ingredients,
and also on fine dining, because it affected so many
of those things.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
But I think the thing that it mosted was restaurants.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
And so I'm so excited for that episode later because
that's a whole can of worms that we're going to
open up and how if you've had anything sooux.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Flayd saute.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Eddy.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
You know, all these techniques and.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Terms and menu and so media and all of these
things come from this era and time. And I really
I'm happy we're going to do an entire episode on
the birth of restaurants, beistros, cafes, rasseries, like all of
those things that really was sparked by the French Revolution.
But while I was in France, I was on a
vineyard in this monastery, this abbey where all wine comes
(22:27):
from from the monks, and they said, that's the Jefferson tree.
That's the Jefferson tree. It was a tree he brought
over and planted. And so I'm fascinated to talk about
the ties between Thomas Jefferson being the ambassador to France,
bringing over wine, bringing over techniques, bringing over breadmakers to
(22:48):
the United States. So what was happening in America at
this time, and how did.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
The American Revolution affect food culture.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
I'm so happy you asked about that, because there's so
many interesting stories specifically related to Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin
Franklin who lived in Paris in the years leading up
to the French Revolution. Before we wrap up today, let's
take a quick look at what was happening in Mexico
around the time of the French Revolution. Back then, Mexico,
(23:19):
then known as New Spain, had been under Spanish colonial
rule for over two hundred years, living within a strict
cast system that favored white Spanish born elites or roccrio
jos beastisos mulatos and indigenous communities. The French Revolution proved
that radical change was possible, and its ideals of liberty, equality,
(23:41):
and constitutional government crossed the Atlantic.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
In Mexico.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Those ideas lit a spark, one that would eventually fuel
a rebellion against Spain and lead to the War of Independence.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Of eighteen ten.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
The Mexican Revolution wouldn't happen for another one hundred years.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
Thanks for listening, you guys, listen to part two. Bye,
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Hungry for History is a Hyphenite media production in partnership
with Iheart's Michael Tura podcast network.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
For more of your favorite shows, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hosts And Creators
MAITE GOMEZ-REJÓN
Eva Longoria
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