We've been working on a new book, titled BITES FROM FRENCH HISTORY. It's about the relationship between French food and French history from Louis XIV to Napoleon. We're assembling stories, food lore, historical events, and of course recipes.
One of the earliest entries dates from August 17, 1661, when young King Louis XIV and his entourage came to visit the newly finished estate of his finance minister, Nicolas Fouquet. Fouquet, like other courtiers, thought he could dominate the inexperienced ruler, and planned to awe him with a lavish party.
In charge of the preparations was the maitre d'hotel, named Francois Vatel. He had hired France's premier landscaper, Le Notre, to plant magnificent gardens, the architect Le Veau to design a multi-story house, decorated with paintings of mythological scenes done by Charles LeBrun. The composer Lully was hired to create a musical background for the banquet, and finally an evening's entertainment of comedy written by the immortal Moliere just for the occasion.
At the banquet, the king complimented his host on the gold-plated dishes on which the food was served. Fouquet unwisely corrected him, saying that the plates were in fact solid gold. The king commented that his own palace had no such plates.
Instead of being impressed, Louis felt that Fouquet must have embezzled a considerable amount from the treasury to put on such a fabulous display. The banquet had two results: When the king returned to Paris, he ordered Fouquet arrested--and eventually jailed for life. The second result had far-reaching effects for France. The king hired all the people Fouquet had employed and set them to work building a new royal palace at Versailles.
The only employee that the king spurned was the man who had overseen it all: Vatel. But a few years later Vatel was to present another banquet for the king, and it would make Vatel one of the heroes of French cuisine.
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