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French food

In this era where fast food restaurants line the streets, microwave ovens have entered thousands of households, and fast food fills store shelves, the nostalgia for traditional food is even more prominent.

As for food, Chinese cuisine is of course world-renowned and unique.

In the West, French cuisine is also well-known and praised by everyone.

When it comes to French cuisine, it starts with Henry IV the Great, the French king in the 16th century.

Before his reign, France was still in a "barbaric" state of eating with hands, and the so-called gourmet food was out of the question.

All this happened until Henry IV married an Italian princess. As the queen married to France, a large number of Italian chefs also married to Paris, and the queen herself was also a "Mother-in-law" who loved the kitchen.

From then on, the food situation in Henry's court took on a new look, and many Italian delicacies began to be popular in the court.

Knives and forks also began to become popular, and the French, under the leadership of Henry IV, began to elegantly learn to use knives and forks.

In the later years of Henry IV, the court and lords from all over the country paid heavily to hire chefs from Italy to host banquets.

The so-called aristocratic banquets in those days often involved eating, drinking, and having fun at the same time, with both delicious food and performances available.

Troubadours and jugglers performed indispensably during the banquet, and the dishes were served by servants in turn for the hosts and guests to taste. Until the banquet was over, the serving of dishes became part of the performance.

Riding on the east wind of the Renaissance, French cuisine also began to prosper, getting rid of the darkness and backwardness of the Middle Ages.

But there is still a long way to go before it reaches real French cuisine.

By the time of Louis XIV, French cuisine had another opportunity to make a leap.

With the rise of France's national power during this period, and because Louis XIV himself also loved luxury, the luxury of the French court's banquets has become the highest in Europe.

James II, who was ousted from power due to the "Glorious Revolution", visited Versailles as a guest.

Louis XIV held a grand banquet to welcome him. The luxurious banquet lasted for three days and three nights, and he also stayed up late at night.

So much so that afterward, James II was so surprised and surprised that he recalled his past "hard days" and lamented that the previous dishes were in vain.

At the same time, Louis XIV also began to work hard to train France's own local chefs to get rid of dependence on the Italians.

What he does is to hold a national cooking competition. The winner will be recruited to the Palace of Versailles and awarded the "No. 1 Chef in France" with the merit award, which is the so-called CORDO NBLEU. This has become the most prestigious chef in France.

It was their dream goal, and this award has been retained to this day.

Later, Louis XV further developed French cuisine based on this.

The social status of chefs has also been greatly improved, and it has become a noble and artistic profession.

For a time, hundreds of schools of thought were contending in the French food scene, and it was a prosperous scene.

In the religious world, Catholics advocate the use of sugar, and Protestants advocate the use of butter. In the ideological world, Voltaire was the first to propose that adding mushrooms to turkeys can increase the flavor. Rousseau also became the earliest vegetarian in the West to oppose eating meat.

Diderot even said the following wise words: "I can live without poetry, without music, without art, without conscience, without feelings, without friends, without books, but as a civilized man, I cannot do without good food."

During this period, the famous French chef Lavalette first published "The French Chef", the earliest food book in French history.

Food customs and etiquette also began to develop.

In the past, at European banquets, every dish was a secret. In order to surprise the guests as well as the show, there was no so-called menu at all.

The only exception was in 1521, when the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V held an imperial meeting in Worm to discuss the issue of Martin Luther. During this period, the Duke of Brunswick from Salzburg once asked someone to give the name of the dish.

Written on a piece of parchment.

In the era of Louis XV, this was followed by the French court. At that time, a lot of effort was put into the text description of the menu to make it an organic part of the meal, so that the guests would have appetites and salivate when ordering.

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French cuisine has passed all the above and gradually developed its own system in terms of production, classification, serving methods and dining etiquette, and has also produced fruitful results.

But what really made French cuisine world-famous, well-known and recognized by all walks of life in various countries, is thanks to the French Revolution.

With the gunfire of the Bastille, Louis XVI was sent to the guillotine and said a helpless farewell to the palace's delicacies.

French cuisine has not been negatively affected by this.

A large number of palace chefs fled to the common people with the revolution, and they began to open restaurants and restaurants in the streets of Paris to make a living.

Therefore, with the emergence of these "royal dining rooms", a large number of palace meals became delicacies that most French classes could enjoy.

While enjoying them, the middle class also began to imitate the dining methods and etiquette of the aristocrats in the past, coupled with the unique "petty bourgeoisie sentiment" and some unique artistic charm.

After that, France had a Napoleon, and because of his tricolor flag flying in almost the entire European continent, just as the slogan "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" was widely welcomed by people from all over the world, French cuisine also followed suit.

With Napoleon's army spread to various countries.

Goethe, the great German writer at the time, commented, “Napoleon’s iron hooves conquered the European monarchs, while the delicacies of French chefs conquered everyone’s stomachs.