The Birth of the Modern Restaurant

By the late 19th century the restaurants in Paris had become accepted centers of social life, accompanied by the elegant art of the menu card.— From “Food Mania... An extraordinary visual record of the art of food from kitchen garden to banqueting table,” 2001

Paris of the 1760s saw the birth of one facet of the modern world... The modern day restaurant

When traveling, lunches and dinners can be the most delightful of moments. Especially, if we allow ourselves to spend some time discovering the culinary particularities of the visited region. The chances are that we have all enjoyed these moments at restaurants, as we can find them in most places we visit, whether the place is a tourist destination or not. The fact is that restaurants are nowadays so commonplace, we can hardly picture ourselves in a world without them. However, it hasn’t always been the case. Did you know that the French Revolution deeply influenced the development of the restaurant as a major cultural practice, and made it nowadays a marker of world heritage?

Historically, inns and hotels have always provided meals for their guests, but it was related to hospitality and not on the culinary experience itself. Moreover, these were mostly taverns which were notoriously crowded, noisy, not very clean and they served food of dubious quality at large common tables. The first modern restaurant appeared in rue des Poulies in Paris in the 1760s, owned by Mr. Boulanger; he opened a place with his motto written on the top of it, “Venite ad me, omnes qui stomacho laboratis, et ego restaurabo vos” (“Come to me, you whose stomachs hurt, and I will restore you”). Mr Boulanger was serving healing “bouillons” to his guests, in order to cure their aches. This is why he created the word “restaurant,” which comes from the verb “se restaurer” (to restore), a place where you would find something to restore your strength. But quickly Boulanger adapted his place to the expectations of his clientele, giving birth to the modern restaurant and bringing three disruptive innovations.

The first was on the food itself. Indeed, the client could choose from a much larger selection of dishes, up to 250, of a higher quality. Also, it was possible to enjoy various types of food, from bouillons to meat, and vegetables to pastries, while taverns mostly proposed a daily meal. The concept of eating “à la carte” was born. The second innovation seems commonplace for us today: at Boulanger’s restaurant it was possible to be seated at an individual table, and no longer on collective benches, as was the case in inns and hotels. And finally, the restaurant displayed fixed pricing in advance. Thus the client was able to choose the table he wanted, be seated with the persons he had invited, eat the dishes of his choice and know how much he would have to pay for it. How innovative!

Very often disruptive innovations break the situation of well-established competitors. This was also the case at that time. The industry of the “traiteurs” (caterer) were the only ones allowed to serve dishes cooked in sauce, thus they decided to sue Boulanger, who won the trial. This affair had a major impact with enlightening the new concept of the restaurant, making it even more successful by attracting philosophers and intellectuals. Quickly, several competitors appeared. The most famous was “La Taverne de Londres” at the rue de Richelieu, held by Antoine de Beauvilliers, the chef of the Count of Provence, King Louis XVI’s brother. In a very delicate and refined environment, he invited his guests to eat like at the Court of Versailles. The wine was served by the bottle, according to the custom in of the time in London, which was fashionable at that time. “La Taverne de Londres” was the first grand restaurant, and remained the largest one in Paris for 20 years from 1782 without any rival. Joséphine de Beauharnais, the future Empress and wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, enjoyed dinners there. But the take off of the modern restaurants happened thanks to a major historical event... the French Revolution!

By the late 19th century the restaurants in Paris had become accepted centers of social life, accompanied by the elegant art of the menu card.— From “Food Mania... An extraordinary visual record of the art of food from kitchen garden to banqueting table,” 2001

Without a doubt, the French Revolution helped indirectly the development of this innovative dining trend. Before the Revolution, the profession of cook was almost exclusively dedicated to serve at the private mansions of the bourgeois and aristocrats. No chef was on his own. But during the French Revolution most of the nobility emigrated outside of France, leaving their cooks and domestic servants unemployed. In order to use their talents, many of them became restaurant owners. There were fewer than 100 restaurants before 1789, but 10 years later Paris had more than 1,000 of them. There were 3,000 restaurants by 1815. The competition became fierce, each place trying to make a difference by offering different styles and varieties of food, and also enhancing the quality. The trend went quickly abroad: the first restaurant in the United States opened in Boston in 1794. And slowly, the fashionable trend became a well-integrated habit, which went during the 19th century from an elitist custom to a well-popularised practice.

Another revolution, the industrial one, also deeply influenced the development of the modern restaurant. People from the countryside left their provinces in numbers to come to Paris to work in factories. They arrived in a city where they had no family to feed them, and no place to cook for themselves after the day’s work. Therefore, cheaper versions of the restaurant appeared, called “gargote” or “guinguette,” where it was possible to enjoy some basic meals at very low prices. The trend went on, and later, in Paris during the Second Empire (1853-1870), each neighborhood had a restaurant offering choices of food matching the tastes of the local population. This is why, in 1867, the “Almanach des étrangers à Paris” wrote, “Paris is the city in the world where people enjoy the most dining at restaurants.” The author also added “This is the city where you can taste the best cuisine if you are not paying too much attention to your expenses, but also the capital where you can get fed for very moderate prices”. In 1900 the Michelin guide was created to go with the development of automobiles as a common practice, giving for drivers a list of mechanics, doctors and maps for each listed cities. Some 20 years later, the guide also started to list restaurants, and gave its first stars in 1926 for the best tables. At the time, restaurants could be found around the world, and the success of the “restaurant” has not declined since.

The next time you travel, give a bit of thought to your ancestors, who 250 years ago could not choose their own food while traveling, and could thus face some difficulties to adapt local culinary customs. Nowadays, you can make your own choice, and it is no longer a luxury to enjoy a meal when traveling. In fact, one of the best things to do for the next Bastille Day celebrations, could be to enjoy a meal at a restaurant!

Etiquipedia contributor Guillaume Rué de Bernadac is the President & Founding Director of the luxury etiquette institution, Académie de Bernadac in Shanghai and Paris. He has been featured in Michelin Guide, L’Officiel, Global Times, The Guardian, M6, CNN, etc... Académie de Bernadac

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Table Etiquette and Superstition

 

Throughout history, bread at the table has seen many changes: Rolls or slices of bread have been placed directly on tablecloths, snuggled into napkins placed atop each diner’s plate, passed ‘round dining tables in “bread baskets” or in silver bread trays, served in their own bread plates with matching plates for butter, called “butter pats,” and most notably, Queen Victoria popularized having an entire loaf of bread at the table, from which guests could cut off their own slices.

Why is it a curse to place breads or rolls  upside-down at the table?

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen of the 21st century, you must have heard it: placing bread upside-down on the table is a curse! Do it, and there will most likely be some people feeling uncomfortable. There is a reason for this discomfort that goes back through a long, tragic history.

During the Middle-Ages in Europe, each city had its own executioner, in charge of executing the justice decision, including the most extreme ones. It was also a time when bread was the main food for the majority of the people. Bakers had a central place in people’s life. Bakers’ shops were visited every day. Nobody wanted to take the bread meant for the executioner and bakers began to place one loaf of bread facing down. This was the loaf which was meant for him. Seeing a loaf of bread in such a position was already synonym of the worst for those common people, and left everyone feeling uneasy.

Another event would make placing a roll or loaf of bread upside-down definitely a terrible faux-pas at a dining table was the French Revolution. In 1793-1794 there took place “La Terreur” during which many people were sentenced to death through the too-famous Guillotine. Before their execution days, they were all kept in jail, in which they were brought every day a jug of water with a portion of bread on top. None of them knew when would be the day of their death, the only clue they would had was this bread: the night before the execution, they would receive their one portion upside-down. It would mean they only have the night to pray for their soul, going through their sins and hoping God would forgive them.

Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie, wife of the Viscount Alexandre de Beauharnais, was one of them. Later known as “Joséphine de Beauharnais,” which was how her 2nd husband, Napoléon Bonaparte called her, she spent several months in jail, terrified by the bread facing down brought every day to other inmates. She lived every day praying not to receive it, and had to go through the execution of her husband Alexandre on 23rd July 1794, but she was spared and survived.

The 28th July, Maximilien de Robespierre, the man who started “La Terreur”, was arrested. Executions stopped, Joséphine was freed. She eventually married Napoléon Bonaparte, and became Empress. But the sight of a bread upside down was absolutely unbearable for her! At the Imperial court all the servants made sure to place bread properly in her presence, and so did all the restaurants of Paris. As the trend of restaurant went throughout Europe, the custom of considering bread down has a curse was reinforced.

Nowadays, we should remember this is a mere superstition, and we should not forget it is one, but it is still shared by many. Whether you believe in the curse or not, let’s all place the bread facing up, by respects of those who saw their death in it, and also because that’s more beautiful that way to serve breads.

Etiquipedia contributor Guillaume Rué de Bernadac is the President & Founding Director of the luxury etiquette institution, Académie de Bernadac in Shanghai and Paris. He has been featured in Michelin Guide, L’Officiel, Global Times, The Guardian, M6, CNN, etc... Académie de Bernadac

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Cale-Assiette and French Etiquette

Among the small objects found in flea markets, people are intrigued by funny little glass tabs with notches. Some sellers believe these to be knife holders. But they are not very practical for that use. They are, in fact, cale-assiette or ‘plate holders’ — inclined planes with notches, allowing to slightly raise a plate on one side. What purpose? They were very useful when eating artichokes or asparagus. Very fashionable at the end of the 19th beginning of the 20th century, these objects fell a little in obsolescence, although it is still possible to get some. Manufactured by the majority of large French glass and crystal glassworks, they could also be made of silver and other metals or porcelain.” These appeared in the old catalogs including that of Baccarat, but under the name ‘plate holder’. — information from Andre Ganter of  Verrelene

The Baccarat cale-assiette shown above, and others like it, were produced and used at French tables not so long ago, but have become all but forgotten. Unsure regarding the etiquette of cale-assiette, as Site Editor for Etiquipedia, I decided to ask the debonair, Guillaume Rué de Bernadac, of Academie de Bernadac about them. 

Guillaume is one of the most sought after etiquette instructors in the world — Etiquette runs in his blood. His great-grandfather tutored Moroccan royalty. Cale-Assiette are so archaic, even Guillaume, who learned etiquette at a very early age, admitted he had to ask family members for more details on them. He has not seen them used in many years.

I have a lovely box of Baccarat cale-assiette, but I have never found information on exactly how they were used, so I had several etiquette questions for Guillaume: 

• Were cale-assiette part of mid-19th century French place settings? 
• If not part of each place setting, were cale-assiette brought out to the table by the server? 
• Did the server prop the dish up on one side for each diner? 
• If the server did not, did the dinner guest prop up one side of the plate? 
• Were cale-assiette ever used for tilting soup plates or bowls of soup?

Baccarat cale-assiette tilting a plate of asparagus with  sauce —According to Guillaume, cale-assiette, can mean two different things. “What we nowadays call “cale-assiette” in French can designate either something to tilt the plate or something to sort plates out on the table.” Adding that they were, “very trendy during the second part of the 19th century and early 20th. There are some at my grand-mother’s and it’s not uncommon to see a few of them at some flea markets in France.”

“The staff would place one on the table first and then the plate on top of it. The guest could potentially place the plate higher on the ’steps’ at the end of the meal to have more sauce...”

And the etiquette for their use? “They were indeed specifically for artichokes and asparagus, and any other type of dishes which were supposed to be served with a sauce and dipped in with the fingers. For private use mostly, in the bourgeoise familles, the staff would place one on the table first and then the plate on top of it. The guest could potentially place the plate higher on the ’steps’ at the end of the meal to have more sauce collected. It was removed once the dish was finished.” 

Cale-Assiette do work well when eating soup, provided one is eating soup from the olde-fashioned, low and wide, soup “plates” as opposed to soup bowls, as cale-assiette will easily tip a deeper soup bowls over if moved too far under one side of the bowl.

Guillaume Rué de Bernadac is the President & Founding Director of the luxury etiquette institution, Académie de Bernadac in Shanghai and Paris. He has been featured in Michelin Guide, L’Officiel, Global Times, The Guardian, M6, CNN, etc... Académie de Bernadac

The Verrelène company was created in 2011. The blog provides all of our research on antiques and flea markets, in the form of small notices sometimes also published in the regional press (Vosges Matin, l'Echo des Vosges and Vosges Info). The illustrations used generally come from our personal documentation and our photos. When we use illustrations and / or extracts from articles, we generally put references. If we forgot to quote this or that person or reference, please be so kind as to let us know so that we can correct our mistakes and give back to Caesar what belongs to him.

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia