The word gastronomy was coined in Paris by Joseph Berchoux in 1800 in his book La gastronomie ou l’Homme des champs à table. Since then, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and up to the present day, Paris has always been the capital of gastronomy.
It was in Paris, at the end of the eighteenth century, that the concept of restaurant was invented, because before that there were only caterers and roasters next to taverns and inns with a bad reputation. The Revolution led to their development by putting the cooks of the emigrated nobles out of work, and restaurants became the obligatory place for gastronomy. Since then, all types of catering have developed there: from bistros to Michelin-starred restaurants, from local cuisine to restaurants dedicated to certain products or diets, not to mention the cuisines of all countries in the world, because opening a restaurant is one of the best ways to integrate displaced populations.
It is also in Paris that all the products of all France and then of the whole world converged. For example, Grimod de la Reynière reported the arrival of tomatoes in Paris around 1800. This was accentuated by the conjunction of Les Halles, rebuilt by Napoleon III, and the development of the railway. Globalisation and the transfer of Les Halles to Rungis in 1969 have meant that the Rungis International Market has become the largest food market in the world and a model copied all over the world as far away as China.
The great historical Parisian chefs, such as Antonin Carême (at the beginning of the nineteenth century) and Auguste Escoffier (at the beginning of the twentieth century) have left their mark on and organised French, then European and world gastronomy. It was in Paris that the cuisine of the Palaces was born under the leadership of Auguste Escoffier and César Ritz, at the origin of international cuisine.
All the great chefs since Antonin Carême have exported French cuisine to Europe, first in princely tables such as Urbain-Dubois at the King of Prussia’s, then in luxury restaurants such as Edouard Nignon at the Hermitage in Moscow. Auguste Escoffier asserted that: “The art of cooking is perhaps one of the most useful forms of diplomacy” because “during my career, I have sown more than two thousand cooks around the world”.
The great contemporary Parisian chefs have exported their creations in the wake of Joël Robuchon: Alain Ducasse and Yannick Alléno have created haute cuisine restaurants all over the world. At the same time, many chefs from all over the world have learned their trade in the brigades of Parisian restaurants, and have transmitted and adapted cooking techniques in their countries of origin. Parisian cooking schools such as Ferrandi and Le Cordon Bleu are still global references and have spread to many countries.
It was also in Paris that the great culinary revolutions of the twentieth century were born, with the Nouvelle Cuisine of Paul Bocuse, Michel Guérard and Joël Robuchon, which spread throughout the world. It was also in Paris that Molecular Gastronomy was born with its theoretician Hervé This and Pierre Gagnaire, even if it has mainly developed from elsewhere in Europe.
It was also in Paris that the first gastronomic guides were born under the Empire with the Nutritional itineraries of Grimod de la Reynière, of which the Michelin guide, born in 1900, is the successor. Similarly, the great theoreticians of gastronomy published their treatises in Paris, such as Brillat-Savarin, author of the Physiology of Taste published a month before his death in 1826, Grimod de la Reynière with his Almanachs des gourmands, Escoffier and his Guide culinaire. The books of great modern chefs such as those of Joël Robuchon and Paul Bocuse have been translated into more than ten languages.
Paris has also been the favourite place of great gastronomes throughout its history: this was the case of Talleyrand and Cambacérès during the First Empire, Charles Monselet and Baron Brisse at the end of the nineteenth century, and Maurice Edmond-Saillant, known as Curnonsky, the prince-elect of gastronomes during the first half of the twentieth century.
Finally, it was in Paris that the first major gastronomic associations were created, such as the Club des Cent, created by Louis Forest in 1912, and the Académie des Gastronomes, founded in 1928 by Curnonsky, which was one of the founding Academies of the International Academy of Gastronomy under the direction of Michel Génin, whose founding anniversary we are celebrating today.
Paris therefore truly deserves the title of Capital of Gastronomy, especially since two arts brought to perfection in the capital are combined with the restaurant: gastronomy and conversation.
Jean Vitaux
Honorary President of the A.I.G.
President of the Academy of Gastronomes