Savoir-Faire : A History of Food in France.

ISBN:

9781789143317

Title:

Author:

Tebben, Maryann Bates, author.

Personal Author:

Tebben, Maryann Bates, author.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (345 pages)

Series:

Foods and Nations Ser.

Contents:

Introduction -- 1. Gallic Origins -- Annotated Literary Interlude -- 2. Medieval and Renaissance France: The Age of Bread -- Annotated Literary Interlude -- 3. French Innovations: Cookbooks, Champagne, Canning and Cheese -- Annotated Literary Interlude -- 4. The Revolution and Its Results: Butchers, Bakers, Winemakers -- Annotated Literary Interlude -- 5. The Nineteenth Century and Carême: French Food Conquers the World -- Annotated Literary Interludes -- 6. Literary Touchstones -- 7. Outside the Hexagon: Terroir across the Sea -- Annotated Literary Interlude -- 8. The Modern Era: Peasants Forever -- Annotated Literary Interlude -- Conclusion -- Historical Recipes -- References -- Select Bibliography -- Acknowledgements -- Photo Acknowledgements -- Index.

Local Note:

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2021. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.

Subject Term:

Food habits -- France -- History.

Cooking, French -- History.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view book

Publication Date:

2020

Publication Information:

London :

Reaktion Books, Limited,

2020.

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
641.300944 TEB	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Savoir-Faire is a comprehensive account of France's rich culinary history, which is not only full of tales of haute cuisine, but seasoned with myths and stories from a wide variety of times and places--from snail hunting in Burgundy to female chefs in Lyon, and from cheese appreciation in Roman Gaul to bread debates from the Middle Ages to the present. It examines the use of less familiar ingredients such as chestnuts, couscous, and oysters; explores French food in literature and film; reveals the influence of France's overseas territories on the shape of French cuisine today; and includes historical recipes for readers to try at home.

Author Notes

Maryann Tebben is professor of French and head of the Center for Food Studies at Bard College at Simon's Rock, Massachusetts. She is the author of Sauces: A Global History , also published by Reaktion Books.

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

Although this book is a masterwork of history, Tebben's survey of Gallic food violates the basics of reference writing. Her summation of developments in French cuisine bombards the reader with details of milieu, economics, and cookery in addition to the specifics of taste and sources of raw materials. The dense rhetoric of the text requires concentration to sort out facts and nuance. Tebben particularizes wine and beer cultures and tracks the advances in bread making from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance, citing shifts in basic ingredients from wheat flour to less familiar carbohydrate sources. Excellent illustrations draw on works of bas-relief, paintings, photographs, and line drawings suited to the text. Tebben's frequent--and unnecessarily sophisticated--sprinklings of French phrases seem to assume that readers are familiar with the vernacular, based on a faulty premise that limits accessibility by students only familiar with other languages. Indeed, the breezy "savoir-faire" style of the text may work a major hardship on home economics, hospitality management, hotel administration, and food service majors who most need the information, and yet the book may be a welcome acquisition for college and university libraries also serving a robust French language program. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals. General readers. --Mary Ellen Snodgrass, formerly, Lenoir-Rhyne University