Even if the cook is American or Russian, he still cooks French dishes. Because it is French cuisine that is considered the standard. Why is this so?
Like any phenomenon in our world, cooking has its historical roots. Therefore the answer should be sought in history. The emergence of French cuisine was facilitated by a number of fortunate circumstances. First of all it is a geographical location of France itself. The climate is temperate and warm – everything can grow. And the sea is nearby. And, as we know, the most delicious fish is fresh fish.
In the Middle Ages, food for the French was already an important part of life. But the food culture was very different from that of today. It would be centuries before the French were trendsetters in this matter. What did the feast of the king (or some other “big shot” like a duke) look like? Servants dragged huge mountains of meat, fish, and poultry from the kitchen. And they laid it out on the tables, first and second, and dessert. They ate everything in a row and didn’t think twice about it. By the way, they ate with their bare hands, without cutlery. For example the following dish was in fashion: lark in chicken, chicken in goose, goose in bustard, and all that in swan. Such a matryoshka. Best nz casinos for nz dollars https://newzealandcasinosonline.co.nz/online-casinos-nz-dollars/
In 1279, the French Parliament even passed a resolution specifying the number of dishes eaten at lunch: soup, two second courses and dessert. This once again shows the importance of food to the French. In other countries, they did not think much about laws regulating lunch at the state level.
A second important point. The banquets of French kings elevated cooking to an art form. It all began back in the 16th century. And in 1633, there was an important event – Catherine de Medici married Henri de Valois, the future king of France. And so she brought Italian traditions with her to French cooking. Now the very serving of food resembled a show. Food was decorated and served on beautiful plates and platters, and drinks were poured into glasses of beautiful and rare glass. There are new recipes for dishes borrowed from the Mediterranean cuisine.
Another important tradition was introduced by Louis XIV, the “king-sun”. Finally, dishes are slowly served during the meal one by one, rather than piled all at once. The king leisurely devours first the first, then the second, then dessert. He also introduced cutlery – for which, of course, thanks. A little bonus to hygiene.
Under King Francis the First, son-in-law of Catherine de Medici, a trend called “bourgeois cuisine” emerged. The French called it “cuisine bourgeoise. The point is that this cuisine included the usual everyday food of the bourgeois (what they called the “middle class”). The bourgeois bourgeois paid considerable attention to food. Lunch typically included:
appetizers;
first course (soups and broths);
main course: meat, fish;
dessert: fruit and different kinds of cheeses.
In contrast to the elite cuisine, it was a common home-cooked meal without frills and pretentiousness. But as early as the 17th century, cookbooks on “bourgeois cuisine” were being printed. And herein lies the third important point. The French were the first to record and organize knowledge of the art of cooking. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, knowledge was kept and passed on by monks. Because they were literate and had free time for experimentation. So they created laws, how to make wine, how to make cognac. It’s not so bad, right? They prayed, had a snack, went out for a glass of wine, all for the sake of “science” of course. A French monk Pierre Perignon (Dom Perignon is Latin for “dominus”, the French word for a clergyman) mixed a few grape varieties and discovered the secrets of blending wine (when wine is blended to improve its quality). He was also the first to bottle wine, and the first to decide to use cork bark stoppers. At the same time as wine-making was developing in France, cooking was also developing. Best $5 minimum deposit casinos in Canada are here.
And then there was more. Prominent cooks passed on their experiences in books. The Praise of French Cookery (1810) was written by Marie-Antoine Carème, “chef of kings and king of cooks” who served under Talleyrand, George IV, James Rothschild, Alexander I and Franz II. He traveled extensively and added innovative ideas seen around the world to French cuisine. For example, in Russia he noticed that each guest at the table was served separately from the others. He introduced the same in France.