November 2018
James McNeill Whistler and Loïs Mailou Jones
Parisian eateries play an interesting part in an etching by James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) and in a painting by Loïs Mailou Jones (1905-1998), two American artists who had spent a considerable amount of time in [...]
October 2018
Brioche as Blunder
Brioche as a pastry appeared in French texts as early as 1404; brioche as blunder began to be noted in texts around 1823. In the book Le pont neuf : poëme héroïque et badin, en [...]
September 2018
Crab and Guadeloupe
Around eighty percent of the food items for consumption in current-day Guadeloupe are imported, mostly from France. One item that sidesteps this domineering situation is crab, which has an interesting history. During the 18th [...]
May 2018
Alcoholism and Women’s Suffrage
Women in France did not have the right to vote until 1944. Arguments for women's suffrage included the idea that France would be better able to fight its growing problem of alcoholism if women were [...]
April 2018
Pierrot
Absinthe, brandy, Camembert, candy, chocolate, cognac, Cointreau, cookies, Coulommiers cheese, lemon soda, Sauternes — advertising for many food items in France from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries used the Pierrot character. [...]
March 2018
In Paris but Dreaming of Food from Elsewhere
Preferring a type of food other than French is not all that unthinkable, even if one does happen to dine regularly with Louis XIV, as can be seen in the writings of his sister-in-law Charlotte-Elisabeth [...]