Thomas from the Antilles
France’s first anisette able to rival that of old houses from Amsterdam such as Lucas Bols (founded in 1575) and Wynand Fockink (founded in 1679) was the anisette produced by the 1755 company Marie Brizard [...]
Wine Regions and Climate Change
What happens when a wine-producing region is affected by climate change? Below is a sampling of what has been reported in the past five years: eleven articles and two podcast episodes listed in reverse chronological [...]
Sharing the Stage
Books that put French cooking on a pedestal abound from the seventeenth century to the present day, but what of books in which French cooking shares the stage with recipes from other countries? Except for [...]
“Rayt . . . or Wright: Why Moroccan Teapots Look British” by Iziar de Miguel
By the end of the nineteenth century, metalwork made in Europe began competing with the local production of Morocco. European merchants started to sell objects inspired by the local craftsmanship from the North of Africa. [...]
Food vs Words
Whether words are more important than food or vice versa — interesting stances about this have been taken. The following are a few examples. Bon appétit ! I. Food 1. Je vis de [...]
Tea with a Spot of Gallic Flair
Tea being made into a French drink almost as if by the sheer attitude of the fashionable crowd— that is a notion suggested in a number of magazines and newspapers during the early 1900s in [...]
Do Not . . .
Around 1512/1514 in France an illustrated manuscript seemingly made for the heir apparent to the crown shows a number of sayings that use food as a way to talk about morals. At the time, François [...]
At the White House: Honoré Julien, Edith Hern Fossett, and Frances Gillette Hern
April 3, 1807 was a regular workday for the chef Honoré Julien (1760–1830) and his assistants Edith Hern Fossett (1787-1854) and Frances Gillette Hern (1788-after 1827), both of whom were enslaved. When they were preparing [...]
“A Very Sweet Present: Moroccan Sugar Loaves” by Iziar de Miguel
In Morocco sugar loaves are offered on the occasion of a marriage proposal (two sugar loaves), weddings, births, or visits to persons celebrating their return from the pilgrimage to Mekka. It is said that sugar [...]