Gallantry and cookery

Wygant, A. (2012) Gallantry and cookery. In: Food and Fantasy in Early Modern France. UNSPECIFIED. (Unpublished)

Abstract

How can a cookery book be ‘galant’? There has lately been a great deal of literary-critical interest in the modernizing fashion for the ‘galant’ in the second half of the seventeenth century (Viala), but a cookery book styling itself with this cultural buzz-word has so far escaped notice. In 1674, an author identified only as ‘L.S.R.’ published a veritable food manifesto, L’Art de bien traiter, divisé en trois parties. Ouvrage nouveau, curieux, et fort galant, utile a toutes personnes et conditions. For historians of food, the great question of this text is: why, with little evidence of much change in its recipes, does its preface declare a radical break with the past, particularly with reference to the most successful cookery book of the entire seventeenth century, the Cuisinier françois of La Varenne, which first appeared in 1651 and subsequently went through thirty editions in 75 years? My thesis is that the Marquise de Sablé is once again at the heart of the matter. According to contemporary accounts, she was much to be heard at this time railing against La Varenne, and there are manuscript recipes preserved by her second house physician, Noël Vallant, along with manuscript correspondance in the Bibliothèque nationale (B.N.F, Fr.: Portefeuilles Vallant: 17044-56, 17806; 10583-91). These largely unnoticed materials are apt to confirm that the polemic introduced by L.S.R., and his cookery book’s claim to exemplifying the ‘galant’, evince a Sablé-esque posture with respect to taste: the galant table emphasized not just the taste of food but also the taste of the host serving it. In L’Art de bien traîter, food and the senses seem to conduct a particular kind of love affair. Sight and taste are charmed, their desire is fulfilled in galant cuisine, and the meal seems to take place at Tendre sur Inclination. The chapter will conclude with a technical analysis of the ‘recipe wars’ ignited by L’Art de bien traîter.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Unpublished
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Wygant, Dr Amy
• Authors: Wygant, A.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Modern Languages and Cultures > French