The invention of the restaurant
Autor: Paulo Seidl | Publicado: 2015-12-26T08:14:00-08:00










The invention of the restaurant in the 18th
and 19th century



Paulo
Seidl

Histoire
et Culture de l’Alimentation

Université François Rabelais



Introduction

The objective of this short summary is, in light of a
brief literature review, to analyze the grounds upon which the restaurant was
invented in the late 18th and early 19th century in
Paris. It also attempts to differentiate common lodges and other entrepreneurs
that sold food, which had catered mostly to travelers since Ancient times, from
the establishments as we know them today.



Development

The origins of the restaurant can be traced as far as
the limits between pre-history and history. In places like Rome and China,
lodges already offered travelers a bed, a stable for their horses, but above
all, a hot restoring meal. Those businesses were often located by a major road,
in central areas or near main intersections.



A few centuries later, taverns became common in more
urban areas, but they served mostly drinks while offering entertainment. Cafés,
a 17th century invention, also became popular in large European
cities, but did not serve any food, except for pastries and biscuits to accompany
coffee. By that time, rôtisseurs and pâtissiers were also selling prepared foods, like pastries, roasts, or pâtés. Finally,
there were the table d’hôtes (ordinaries in Britain), which were ‘all you can eat’ buffets
with a fixed price, no printed menus, no separate tables or flexible time,
regarded by many as a place with no finesse
or charm. 



But these businesses had little to do with restaurants
as we know them today, which did not come to exist until the 1760’s in the city
of Paris. At that time, it became common for convalescents to consume a very
thick stock, consisting of vegetables but mostly meats, which were slowly
simmered for many hours. It was believed that by breaking down proteins
contained in meat, a sick person would get the necessary nourishment without
the hassles of a long digestion.



It soon became fashionable for Parisians to frequent
houses which prepared and served the restaurant,
a restoring soup. Originally, a restaurant
was not a place, but the name of a soup. By the end of the 18th
century, the so-called restaurant rooms, or houses which served restaurants, were already serving more
solid food to its growing clientele. 



It was not until shortly after the French Revolution,
however, that restaurants took shape and proliferated. First, because with the
end of absolutism, haut-cuisine became
accessible to the bourgeoisie, since most of the aristocracy and nobility had
been imprisoned or executed. Second, their chefs had lost their jobs and promptly
became restaurateurs themselves, incrementing the growing number of restaurants
existing in the city. Third, with the fall of Versailles, Paris doubled its
population between 1800 and 1850, augmenting a public increasingly eager to
visit a restaurant. Finally, with escalating demand, competition played an
important role in the development of restaurants, boosting chefs’ creativity
and resourcefulness. Between the late 18th century and 1820, for
instance, the number of restaurants increased from a mere one hundred to 3,000
houses. 



It is worth mentioning that around that time, the work
of prominent professionals also spurred the haut
cuisine and consequently the restaurants that served it. In the
sociological field, Brillat-Savarin proposes a breakthrough in food literature
with The physiology of taste. In
journalism, the figure of Grimod de la Reynière appears as the first
gastronomic journalist. At last, Antonin Carême, the self-made pastry chef who
was a street orphan in the cities of Paris during the French Revolution, sets
the grounds of modern French cuisine. 



By the beginning of the 19th century, Paris
was internationally known as the city of restaurants. The cradle of gastronomy
became the target of artists, politicians, diplomats, and other professionals
who fled to the city in order to visit its restaurants. Eating at a restaurant
became a cultural program no less than visiting a museum or going to the opera.
And it remained so until the mid 19th century when restaurants
started to spread outside Paris and France.



Conclusion

The early 18th and late 19th
century witnessed the invention of restaurants as we know them today, no longer
a place to restore one’s health or to be fed, but rather a locale for social
gathering around food and drink. In short, the invention of restaurants
reinforces the thought that eating is a sociological event, intrinsic in human
relations and of utmost importance in promoting social binds by means of food.



References



Alexandre, P. and L’Aulnoit, B. 2012. Breve História da Gastronomia
Francesa. Rio de Janeiro, Tinta Negra.



Ferguson, P. 2008. A cultural field in the making – Gastronomy in the 19th century France. In:
David Englis, Debra Gimlin, and Chris Thorpe (eds). Food – Critical Concepts in Social Sciences. 114-154. New York,
Routledge.



Gaudry,
F. R. 2006. Mémoires du restaurant - Histoire illustrée d’une invention
française. Genève, Aubanel.



Héron de Villefosse, R. 1956. Histoire et géographie gourmande de Paris. Paris, Édition de
Paris.



Huetz de
Lamps, A. and Pitte, J.R. 1990. Les restaurants dans le monde et à travers les
âges. Grenoble, Éditions Glénat.



Pitte,
J.R.1996. Naissance et expansion des restaurants. In: Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo
Montanari (eds.), Histoire de
l`alimentation, 767-778. Paris, Fayard.



Spang, R. 2000. The Invention of the Restaurant. Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture.
Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.



Spang, R.
2001. Aux origines du restaurant parisien. In: À table au XIXe siècle. Dec 2001-March 2002. 172-181. Paris, ADAGP. 



Spang, R. 2008. All the world’s a
restaurant. In: David Englis, Debra Gimlin and Chris Thorpe (eds). Food – Critical Concepts in Social Sciences.
258-269. New York, Routledge.



Spang, R. And Muller, S. 2014. L'individu au menu: l'invention du restaurant à Paris au XVIIIe
siècle. Ethnologie française, 44, 11-17.


Garval,
M. 2004. L'invention du restaurant, Critique, 2004/6 685-686, 520-529. http://www.cairn.info/revue-critique-2004-6-page-520.htm.



Credit of the opening illustration - https://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist255-s01/students/Ruby-R-Littman/restaurants_revolution.html&nbsp;