A Brazilian Dinner
Autor: Paulo Seidl | Publicado: 2016-04-27T10:05:00-07:00





Jean-Baptiste Debret (1768-1848) 

A Brazilian dinner, 1827. Watercolor, 15,7 x 21,9 cm

Museus Castro Maya, Rio de
Janeiro – IBRAM – MinC





A Brazilian Dinner





Paulo Seidl

Université François Rabelais



Abstract

The watercolor A
Brazilian dinner painted by Jean-Baptiste Debret and the homologous text
the artist has written provide substantial information on the eating habits and
table manners of upper class Brazilians in the 19th century. Among
them, the type of food they ate indicates a large amount of meat, the presence
of manioc meal on the table, and the lack of rice as a staple side dish. Also,
it confirms the Caucasian, African, and Indigenous influences of Brazilian
cuisine.



&nbsp;Resumo

A aquarela Um jantar brasileiro de&nbsp;Jean-Baptiste Debret e o texto homólogo que escreveu forneceram diversas &nbsp;informações sobre os hábitos alimentares e as maneiras à mesa da classe alta brasileira no século XIX. Entre essas, o tipo de comida que comiam revela uma grande quantidade de carne, a presença da farinha de mandioca na mesa, e a ausência de arroz como alimento básico. Além disso, confirma as influências europeias, africanas e indígenas da cozinha brasileira.





<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <!--[endif]-->Introduction

The objective of this short article is to provide insight
on Brazilian eating habits and table manners in the 19th century, in
light of the analysis of the watercolor A
Brazilian Dinner by Jean-Baptiste Debret, who lived in Brazil between 1817
and 1831. This was a critical historical time for Brazil, when a number of
important historical events took place and marked the birth of a nation.

Debret was a keen observer of Brazilian society. He
was particularly interested on street scenes, food trade, and people of all
walks of life, including enslaved black people, who were the object of a great
many art works he produced during his long stay in the tropics (Straumann, 2002).
Upon his return in France, he wrote Voyage
pittoresque et historique au Brésil, which was published in 1834 (volume I)
and 1839 (volume II). In his book, extremely detailed information is given on
each of his paintings, adding a substantial surplus to the already rich
collection of information he had left by means of his paintings.

The watercolor A
Brazilian Dinner is among those commented works. It stands out as a unique
piece, as most of his works depict the underprivileged class and popular
events. Instead, the Brazilian Dinner
portrays a wealthy family, but at the same time provides paramount input for
the study of eating habits of a society at its wake.



<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <!--[endif]-->Brazilian society in the 19th century

Debret painted the Brazilian
Dinner in 1827, when the
independence of the country had been proclaimed only five years before. Rio de
Janeiro was a bustling city at that time, with an estimated population of
500,000 inhabitants (Gomes, 2007). Slavery was still legal, and Africans
dominated the street scenes because they were in charge of supplying the
household of their masters with food, water, charcoal, and other basic needs of
the carioca families. As a result,
slaves were a very common site on the streets, shops, and markets.

Most families, regardless of their economic status,
had at least one slave in the household.&nbsp;
Wealthy families, naturally, had more than one and it was customary for
masters to send their slaves to the street to sell food in order to supplement
the domestic income. Freed men equally carried out these tasks. 

Life was rough for the slaves. Deprived of freedom and
sometimes of their language and culture, they could be severely punished for
small misdemeanor, depending on the rigidity of their patrons. Living a life
with no rest, their only hope was to raise enough money to buy their freedom,
sometimes at an exorbitant price. They did so by putting aside part of the
profit they made from the selling of food on the street, a deal previously
arranged with their masters. Farm slaves could not contemplate this dream due
to the fact that they had no contact with people or currency. 

In addition to blacks, who could be overwhelming in
number, whites, mestizos, and
indigenous were among a multi-ethnic and growing society in Rio de Janeiro.
White men could be Brazilian-born or foreigners, most often Portuguese, but
also French, Italian, and German, among other European nationals who came to
the tropics to venture new opportunities. 



<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <!--[endif]-->Iconography analysis

A Brazilian dinner

Among the many
watercolors painted by Debret abundantly describing Brazilian food culture in
the 19th century, the only one that portrays a meal is the Brazilian Dinner. The table is set with
a number of foods on it. The master of the house is sitting at the table
accompanied by his wife while three slaves stand around and two nude black
children sit on the floor. Thus, table manners may be identified, such as the
use of tableware (very long forks and knives), a wine glass, a water pitcher,
individual plates and several platters with food. The atmosphere is relaxed,
perhaps a little too casual for the artist’s European manners, excused by high
temperatures which ‘abandons the good
manners’ and ‘neglects the dress code’
(Debret, 2014, p 166).

A number of
items in the dining room suggest that the family is well-off, such as their
garments, the furniture, the white tablecloth, as well as the wine glass and
platters on the table. The poor hardly ever had a table, and usually ate on the
floor. If they were to drink an alcoholic beverage, it would be cachaça, a sugarcane spirit. Likewise,
they would not have a tablecloth and ate most often ate with their hands, habits that
remind those of European peasants in the Middle Ages (Laurioux, 2002). 

The description
the artist wrote accompanying the watercolor is equally insightful. In it, Debret
expresses his disgust when compares one of the children, who is being fed by
the housewife, to a dog, which has been repeatedly painted by European artists
from the Middle to the Modern Ages (…la
femme s’amuse de ses petits negrillons, qui remplace la famille presque éteinte
de petits chiens carlins en Europe, p. 166).

The differences
between the meals of higher and lower classes are also present in his
description, mainly concerning the variety of food. The meal of the family
consisted of several dishes, including a breaded soup (whose recipe reminds
that of the famed Parisian soupe restaurante),
boiled meats, a shrimp coulis,
chicken rice, cooked vegetables, a roast, and a pile of oranges. This could
have been a meal in any European country if not for two items, namely the escaldado and the chili sauce. The
former is manioc meal plunged with hot stock while the latter is made with malagueta (bird-eye) chili and vinegar. 

As a good
Frenchman, Debret observes that there is no bread on the table. Actually, although
bread is consumed by the Brazilian elite, its lack could be justified
by the consumption of manioc meal, here presented in the form of an escaldado. Cascudo (2008), in his Anthology of the Brazilian Foods,&nbsp;lists a
number of 19th century foreign writers who endorsed Debret’s observations
on bread, such as Von Martius and Marcgrave. Others imply that corn flour was an
equally good replacement, like Saint-Hilaire and Derby.

While the
well-off Caucasians had abundant food on their tables, lower classes, including
poor Caucasians, enslaved or free Africans, as well as mestizos, had to content themselves with a one-dish meal, a
porridge-like food prepared with manioc or corn floor, vegetables and pieces of
meat, referred to as angu.
Interestingly, in Brazilian Portuguese, this word today has a rather pejorative
connotation, implying something like dog food, or food made haphazardly.

Debret’s
depiction of a Brazilian dinner is consistent with the description of John
Luccock (2008), an Englishman who lived in Brazil between 1808 and 1818 and
traveled in the Brazilian countryside. Luccock also points out that manioc
was a substitute for bread on Brazilian tables, and peasants often ate it with
their hands, making use of a knife only to cut the meat. Tables were
inexistent, for meals were served upon a board set over two trestles, revealing
table manners similar to those in the Middle Ages (Laurioux, 2002).

If we compare
today’s meal of the upper class with that of 200 years ago, similarities and
differences could be pointed out. Firstly, it is important to bring out that
what Debret calls ‘dinner’ (dîner) is
actually an afternoon meal, which would occur as from 12 or 1 pm. As for
similarities, most of the dishes illustrated would not be a surprise to any
Brazilian. The meats and their techniques, such as stewed or roasted, the
vegetables, the hot sauce, the fruit, and above all the omnipresence of the
manioc meal, here in form of a purée (although the word pirão is of a more updated usage than escaldado, as used by the author).

The striking
difference, however, is two-pronged. First, the amount of food seems rather
excessive for two people, as today a couple would not be likely to serve such
substantial amounts in an ordinary dinner (or lunch, if terminology is to be
adapted). It is conjectured that leftovers would be consumed by the large
entourage, which today is inexistent or at least substantially reduced, or
saved for the next day. Secondly, the variety of food and the combination
thereof is rather out of the ordinary for current standards. It does not seem
likely that soup would be eaten in an afternoon meal nowadays, or shrimp, beef,
and poultry be served in the same meal. It seems like the menu presented, and
the order in which it appears has an influence of eating habits of Modern Age’s bourgeoisie.


Finally, another
striking difference is the lack of white rice, which today dominates the scene
on any Brazilian tables. Although rice is
present on the menu of the Brazilian
Dinner, it is cooked with chicken and functions more like a main meat dish
than a side dish, as it is normally served today. These observations, despite
having an anecdotal side, are seconded by the findings of Barbosa (2007), who
carried out substantial research on the Brazilian food habits of the early 21st
century.



<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <!--[endif]-->Conclusion 

Jean-Baptiste
Debret witnessed a critical time for the formation of Brazilian society. The
arrival of the Portuguese Royal Family with the transfer of the Portuguese
court to the colony in 1808 brought about significant changes in Brazilian eating habits. By means of his art works, Debret illustrated the birth of a cuisine 

Brazilian multi-ethnic
society and their pluralistic cuisine started to be defined at that time. The
influences the Brazilian dinner illustrate are noticeable, such as European table
manners and meats, the constant African touch of the cooks, and the indigenous
heritage like the manioc meal and chili.

As a suggestion
for further development, a closer analysis of dozens of the artist’s work,
accompanied or not by their description on Voyage
Pittoresque could reveal precious findings on Brazilian food habits of the
19th century.









<!--[if !supportLists]-->5.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <!--[endif]-->References



Barbosa, L. 2007. Feijão com arroz e arroz com feijão. O Brasil no prato dos brasileiros. In Horizontes Antropoloógicos, Porto Alegre, 13, 87-116

Debret, J.B. 2014 (1834, 1839). Voyage Historique et
Picturesque au Brésil, (Introduction by Leenhardt,
J.). Arles, Impremeries Nacionales

Derby, O. 2008. Farinha
de milho e mandioca em São Paulo e Minas Gerais. In Cascudo, L. C.
Antologia da Alimentação no Brasil (pp 208). São
Paulo, Global Editora.

Gomes, L. 2007. 1808.
São Paulo, Ed. Planeta.

http://museuscastromaya.com.br/colecoes/brasiliana/ last visited April 01, 2016

Laurioux,
B. 2002. Manger au Moyen Âge. Pratiques
et discours alimentaires en Europe aux XIVe et XVe siècles. Paris,
Hachette.

Luccock, J., 2008. As
refeições no Rio de Janeiro no princípio do século XIX. In Cascudo, L. C.
Antologia da Alimentação no Brasil (pp 194 to 1998). São Paulo, Global Editora.

Marcgrave, J. 2008.
Cardápio do indígena nordestino. In Cascudo, L. C. Antologia da Alimentação
no Brasil (pp 284 to 287). São Paulo, Global Editora.

Saint-Hilaire, A., 2008. O passadio em Minas Gerais. In Cascudo, L. C. Antologia da
Alimentação no Brasil (pp 203 to 205). São Paulo, Global Editora.

Straumann, P. (ed)., 2002. Rio de Janeiro - la ville
métisse. Paris, Editions Chandeigne.

Von
Martius, C. F. F., 2008. Dieta carioca em 1817. In Cascudo, L. C. Antologia da Alimentação no Brasil
(pp 288 to 289) . São Paulo, Global Editora.&nbsp;