François Pierre La Varenne
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François Pierre de la Varenne (, 1615–1678 in
Dijon Dijon (, ; ; in Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Digion'') is a city in and the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Côte-d'Or Departments of France, department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region in eas ...
), Burgundian by birth, was the author of ''Le Cuisinier françois'' (1651), one of the most influential cookbooks in early modern
French cuisine French cuisine is the cooking traditions and practices of France. In the 14th century, Guillaume Tirel, a Court (royal), court chef known as "Taillevent", wrote ''Le Viandier'', one of the earliest recipe collections of medieval France. In ...
. La Varenne's book expressed the culinary innovations that had revolutionised
medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
and
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
French cookery in the 16th century and early 17th century.


Historical context

La Varenne was the foremost member of a group of French chefs, writing for a professional audience, who codified
French cuisine French cuisine is the cooking traditions and practices of France. In the 14th century, Guillaume Tirel, a Court (royal), court chef known as "Taillevent", wrote ''Le Viandier'', one of the earliest recipe collections of medieval France. In ...
in the age of King
Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...
. The others were Nicolas de Bonnefons, ''Le Jardinier françois'' (1651) and ''Les Délices de la campagne'' (1654), and
François Massialot François Massialot (1660, in Limoges – 1733, in Paris) was a French chef who served as ''chef de cuisine'' (''officier de bouche'') to various illustrious personages, including Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, the brother of Louis XIV, and his so ...
, ''Le Cuisinier royal et bourgeois'' (1691), which was still being edited and modernised in the mid-18th century. The cookbook was still used in France until the French Revolution. The seventeenth century saw a culinary revolution which transported French gastronomy into the modern era. The heavily spiced flavours inherited from the cuisine of the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
(as documented, notably, in Le Viandier by Taillevent) were abandoned in favour of the natural flavours of foods. Exotic and costly
spice In the culinary arts, a spice is any seed, fruit, root, Bark (botany), bark, or other plant substance in a form primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of pl ...
s (
saffron Saffron () is a spice derived from the flower of '' Crocus sativus'', commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigma and styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly as a seasoning and colouring agent ...
,
cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...
,
cumin Cumin (, ; ; ''Cuminum cyminum'') is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native to the Irano-Turanian Region. Its seeds – each one contained within a fruit, which is dried – are used in the cuisines of many cultures in both whole ...
,
ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of l ...
,
nutmeg Nutmeg is the seed, or the ground spice derived from the seed, of several tree species of the genus '' Myristica''; fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg ('' M. fragrans'') is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fru ...
,
cardamom Cardamom (), sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genus (biology), genera ''Elettaria'' and ''Amomum'' in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to the Indian subcontinent and Indon ...
, nigella, seeds of paradise) were, with the exception of pepper, replaced by local
herbs Herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnish (food), garnishing food, for medicinal purposes, or for fragrances. Culinary use typi ...
(
parsley Parsley, or garden parsley (''Petroselinum crispum''), is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae that is native to Greece, Morocco and the former Yugoslavia. It has been introduced and naturalisation (biology), naturalized in Eur ...
,
thyme Thyme () is a culinary herb consisting of the dried aerial parts of some members of the genus ''Thymus (plant), Thymus'' of flowering plants in the mint family Lamiaceae. Thymes are native to Eurasia and north Africa. Thymes have culinary, medici ...
, bayleaf, chervil, sage,
tarragon Tarragon (''Artemisia dracunculus''), also known as estragon, is a species of perennial herbaceous plant, herb in the family Asteraceae. It is widespread in the wild across much of Eurasia and North America and is cultivated for culinary and medic ...
). New vegetables like
cauliflower Cauliflower is one of several vegetables cultivated from the species '' Brassica oleracea'' in the genus '' Brassica'', which is in the Brassicaceae (or mustard) family. Cauliflower usually grows with one main stem that carries a large, rou ...
,
asparagus Asparagus (''Asparagus officinalis'') is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus ''Asparagus (genus), Asparagus'' native to Eurasia. Widely cultivated as a vegetable crop, its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable. Description ...
,
peas Pea (''pisum'' in Latin) is a pulse or fodder crop, but the word often refers to the seed or sometimes the pod of this flowering plant species. Peas are eaten as a vegetable. Carl Linnaeus gave the species the scientific name ''Pisum sativum ...
,
cucumber The cucumber (''Cucumis sativus'') is a widely-cultivated creeping vine plant in the family Cucurbitaceae that bears cylindrical to spherical fruits, which are used as culinary vegetables.artichoke were introduced. Special care was given to the cooking of
meat Meat is animal Tissue (biology), tissue, often muscle, that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted and farmed other animals for meat since prehistory. The Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of vertebrates, including chickens, sheep, ...
in order to conserve maximum flavour.
Vegetable Vegetables are edible parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. This original meaning is still commonly used, and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including edible flower, flo ...
s had to be fresh and tender.
Fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...
, with the improvement of transportation, had to be impeccably fresh. Preparation had to respect the gustatory and visual integrity of the ingredients instead of masking them as had been the practice previously. Finally, a rigorous separation between salted and sweet dishes was introduced, the former served before the latter, banishing the Renaissance taste for mixing sweet and salted ingredients in the same dish or in the same part of the meal.


Works


''Le Cuisinier françois'' (1651)

La Varenne's work was the first to set down in writing the considerable culinary innovations achieved in
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
in the seventeenth century, while codifying food preparation in a systematic manner, according to rules and principles. He introduced the first bisque and Béchamel sauce. He replaced crumbled bread with
roux Roux () is a mixture of flour and fat cooked together and used to thicken sauces. Roux is typically made from equal parts of flour and fat by weight. The flour is added to the melted fat or Cooking oil, oil on the stove top, blended until smoo ...
as the base for sauces, and
lard Lard is a Quasi-solid, semi-solid white fat product obtained by rendering (animal products), rendering the adipose tissue, fatty tissue of a domestic pig, pig.
with
butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of Churning (butter), churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 81% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread (food ...
. Here one finds the first usage of the terms bouquet garni, ''
fonds de cuisine In the culinary arts, fond is a contraction of ''fonds de cuisine'' which is loosely described as "the foundation and working capital of the kitchen". In its native usage, fond refers to the sauce created by dissolving the flavorful solid bits ...
'' (stocks) and reductions, and the use of egg-whites for clarification and the extensive use of egg yolks combined with Verjuice to finish the sauce of most stews.Recipe for "Asparagus in Fragrant Sauce"
from La Varenne's, ''Le Cuisinier françois'' (1651) quoted in Harold McGee's ''On Food and Cooking'' (2004)
It also contains the earliest recipe in print for
mille-feuille A (; ),The name is also written as and . also known by the names Napoleon in North America, vanilla slice in the United Kingdom, and custard slice, is a French dessert made of puff pastry layered with pastry cream. Its modern form was influ ...
. The cooking of vegetables is addressed, an unusual departure. In a fragrant sauce for asparagus there is evidence of an early form of hollandaise sauce: "make a sauce with good fresh butter, a little vinegar, salt, and nutmeg, and an egg yolk to bind the sauce; take care that it doesn't curdle..." La Varenne preceded his book with a text on ''confitures''—jams, jellies and preserves—that included recipes for syrups, compotes and a great variety of fruit drinks, as well as a section on salads (1650).


''Le Pâtissier françois'' (1653)

La Varenne followed his groundbreaking work with a second book, ''Le Pâtissier françois'' (Paris 1653), which is generally credited with being the first comprehensive French work on
pastry Pastry refers to a variety of Dough, doughs (often enriched with fat or eggs), as well as the sweet and savoury Baking, baked goods made from them. The dough may be accordingly called pastry dough for clarity. Sweetened pastries are often descr ...
-making. In 1662 appeared the first of the combined editions that presented all three works together. All the early editions of La Varenne's works—''Le Cuisinier françois'' ran through thirty editions in seventy-five years—are extremely rare; like children's books, they too were worn to pieces, in the kitchen, and simply used up. Pirated editions of ''Le Cuisinier françois'' were printed in
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
(1653) and
The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
(1654–56). Soon there were imitators: ''Le Cuisinier françois méthodique'' was published anonymously in Paris, 1660. The English translation, ''The French Cook'' (London 1653) was the first French cookbook translated into English. It introduced professional terms like ''à la mode'', ''au bleu'' (very rare), and ''au naturel'' which are now standard culinary expressions. Its success can be gauged from the fact that over 250,000 copies were printed in about 250 editions and it remained in print until 1815. It is said that La Varenne's first training was in the kitchens of the queen
Marie de' Medici Marie de' Medici (; ; 26 April 1575 – 3 July 1642) was Queen of France and Navarre as the second wife of King Henry IV. Marie served as regent of France between 1610 and 1617 during the minority of her son Louis XIII. Her mandate as rege ...
. At the time his books were published, La Varenne had ten years' experience as ''chef de cuisine'' to Nicolas Chalon du Blé, Marquis of Uxelles (''marquis d'Uxelles'' in French), to whom he dedicated his publications and whom he immortalised in '' duxelles'', finely-minced mushrooms seasoned with herbs and shallots, which is still a favourite flavouring for fish and vegetables. The Marquis of Uxelles was the royal governor of
Chalon-sur-Saône Chalon-sur-Saône (, literally ''Chalon on Saône'') is a city in the Saône-et-Loire Departments of France, department in the Regions of France, region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefectu ...
, thought by some to be the birthplace of La Varenne. ''Le Cuisinier françois'' was reprinted in 1983, published by Editions Montalba and edited by Jean-Marie Flandrin, Philip Hyman and Mary Hyman with a comprehensive introductory essay.This venture, under the general direction of Daniel Roche, is an attempt to bring those popular editions of French printed culture, sold in cheap blue paperback by traveling peddlers—the '' bibliothèque bleue''—within reach of social historians.


Notes


Further reading

*''Le Cuisinier françois''. Introduction by Philip and Mary Hyman (Montalba: Bibliothèque Bleue, 1983). In French. *T. Sarah Peterson. ''Acquired Taste: The French Origins of Modern Cooking.'' (Cornell University Press, 1994). . *''La Varenne's Cookery. The French Cook; The French Pastry Chef; The French Confectioner. A modern English translation and commentary by Terence Scully.'' (Prospect Books, 2006) . *Patrick Rambourg, ''Histoire de la cuisine et de la gastronomie françaises'', (Librairie Academique Perrin, 2010). .


External links


"Le Cuisinier françois"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Varenne, Francois Pierre La French chefs French male chefs 1615 births 1678 deaths Writers from Dijon French cookbooks