A Revolution In Taste
- Release Date: 13/11/2008
- Country of Issue: United States of America
- Category: Academic and professional books
“Brilliantly narrated and thoroughly documented, this book is a must for the culinary historian as well as the cook.”
- Jacques Pépin, chef, cookbook author, and host of PBS-TV cooking series
For centuries, people the world over have associated French cuisine with fine dining. French chefs, French restaurants, French wine - each instantly suggest a level of excellence, sophistication, and attention to detail not expected from other nationalities. For the French, a meal is to be savored, not devoured. Dining is an experience, not a means to an end. But how did this happen? When did the French set the standard for culinary excellence?
Susan Pinkard’s A Revolution In Taste: The Rise of French Cuisine, 1650–1800 (Cambridge University Press; November 13, 2008) explores the years in which food went from a necessity to a work of art. Pinkard reveals that modern French habits of cooking, eating, and drinking were born in the Ancien Régime.
A radical break from antiquated culinary traditions, this new culinary culture viewed food and wine as important links between human beings and nature. Authentic foodstuffs and simple preparations became the hallmarks of the modern style. Pinkard looks at the roots and development of this culinary revolution in several different historical trends, including changes in material culture, social transformations, medical theory and practice, and the Enlightenment.
Pinkard deftly illuminates the complex cultural meaning of food in her history of the new French cooking from its origins in the 1650s through the emergence of cuisine bourgeoisie and the original nouvelle cuisine in the decades before 1789. In addition, A Revolution in Taste discusses the evolution of culinary techniques and also includes eighty historic recipes adapted for today’s kitchens.
Vive la France!
ENDS
Notes for Editors
Susan Pinkard is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Georgetown University, and is available for interviews.
A Revolution In Taste: The Rise of French Cuisine, 1650-1800 By Susan Pinkard was published by Cambridge University Press on November 13, 2008
$32.00 | 318 Pages | ISBN: 978-0-521-82199-5
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