Would you like to know Italy greatly influenced what we think of ‘classical French cuisine’? It is surprising how an Italian woman can greatly influence and modernize the French cuisine. Not just any Italian woman, but Catherine de Medici. One of the most divisive Queens in the history of France, she was known to be a strong leader. Also known to mortally punish those whom she did not appreciate, but that’s besides the point. Keep in mind, this was the Renaissance period when France had a large brain-drain of talent to progressive Italy. Her introduction to France was of shock, how poorly the French ate in contrast to Italy.
If you were to visit Saint Emilion and buy their famous macarons, you’d hear of the nuns who had invented them hundreds of years ago. This particular macaron is made today with a recipe that hasn’t changed since 1620. Saint Emilion macarons are not colorful as the popular ones for sale in many parts of France, think Pierre Hermes or Laduree. Behind them is the influence of pastry chefs and bakers who came to France with Catherine de Medici.
Catherine left Florence at the age of 14 to marry Henry de Valois. She eventually became Queen of France in 1547. Catherine was born in a rich family of Florentine merchants and bankers, the de Medici. Her parents died within the first month of her life, so that the most influential figures in her upbringing were two Popes. She would be the mother of three Kings – Francis II, Charles IX and Henry III – and Queen Margot, who would be the first wife to Henri IV.
She brought to the kingdom of France a rich dowry of gold coins and pearls. And an even more interesting cultural treasure from the art of the table and the cuisine. Her influence is still discussed today!
When she left Florence for Marseille, she knew it was a one way journey and she brought with her as much of Florence that could be transported. Food and books of recipes, the love of theatrics in dining followed. Let’s not forget the people who had the know-how to execute them, the Italian chefs!
Meals at the French court of Catherine included the ancestors of unmissable classics. Onion soup, known then as carabaccia, and vegetables with béchamel sauce, salsa colla (it was made
using olive oil instead of butter). It’s Catherine de Medici that we have attributed (in some cases) duck a l’orange in France. The long lovely marriage of sweet and savory, typical especially in Medieval cuisine.
She loved broccoli, peas, artichokes cooked in wine and a classic of the French south west – asparagus! It’s only natural that products originating in the near-East and Mediterranean would move West with trade and marriages, such as this. Catherine’s chefs introduced ice cream, macarons, crepes and pastry! She loved New World foods like turkey, chocolate and an abundance of sugar.
Her tables were decorated with precious cloths and the fork started appearing by the side of individual plates not just as a tool to serve food but to eat it. Forks were common across the Alps, but had not reached French tables yet. Meals started being served in courses where savory and sweet were offered separately. This distinction between savory and sweet also arose from the new influx of cheap sugar from the Caribbean colonies.
French cuisine, that was still being produced in the medieval tradition, was modernized into the Renaissance. Catherine’s Italian tastes as a woman who enjoyed a good meal, described sometimes a little too much, to the point of paying for her sins of gluttony. She would have not made the pages of history if it wasn’t for her inner strength, endowed with a fine intellect and remarkable intelligence, that allowed her to rule France indirectly for three decades.
During those years, France went through mysterious deaths, including the Protestant mother of her daughter Margots husband Henri IV, Jean d’Albret. Poisoning was an Italian tradition back then, and wars of religions. Her contemporaries have been quite hostile reporting about her. Only more recently, with the perspective of time, historians have rehabilitated the memory of this woman, who tried to keep up the dialogues among various factions, brought the court of France on the road for over two years and influenced European monarchies, behind the French borders.
So, going back to the Saint Emilion macaron. They were first introduced to the Royal table without a precise
name during the week-long celebration that followed the union between Catherine and Henry
II. They really liked this crispy almond and meringue biscuit (that still didn’t have a creamy filling as that will arrive only four centuries later!). The name followed in 1552 when French author François Rabelais
associated the sweet with its creators, the Italians, those eating maccheroni, with no derogatory meaning.
Now that we have laid this out, there is no doubt history is created by those who write it. You can certainly find authors who argue her influence on French cuisine was not so great, as it took another century for great change to occur. The Roman love of large, extravagant banquets certainly came to France from Italy one time or another. Cuisine was changing from the Middles ages to the Renaissance, certainly in part to the influence of Italy. How much can be attributed to Catherine’s time as Queen can be debated, but Italian influence in French cuisine cannot.
By Anne JORDAN and Simona PALENGA
READ MORE :
https://www.macarons-saint-emilion.fr/macarons/la_fabrique_saint_emilion
https://www.history.com/topics/renaissance/medici-family
https://culturacolectiva.com/fashion/history-of-high-heels-catherine-of-medici/
http://www.asperges-blayais.com/les-asperges/
http://www.eatingutensils.net/history-of-cutlery/fork-history/
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