A taste of Paris: a history of the Parisian love affair with food

Part one. Aperitif

A conspiracy of pleasure

Californian cuisine

Delicious and sometimes nutritious

A recipe for culinary seduction

Part two. For starters: antiquity à la Parisienne, c. 53 BC-c. AD 500

Cryptic culture

'Tis meat

Core samples

Caesar salad

Figs and foie gras

Trimalchio's fête

Waiting for the barbarians

The leftovers

Fat, liverish, and winey

Ham, mustard, and frites

They've got attitude

Part three. Entrées, premier service: medieval Renaissance, c. AD 500-c. 1600

Dark or light?

Scallops and abbots

Tooling up, dining out

My kingdom for a pig

Sense and sensibility

Of geese and gastronomic theme parks

Serenely seeking Taillevent

Ancestral hunger

Heirloom chef

Cry fowl

Crowd pleaser

The roar of Rabelais

Joie de manger

New Rome or new Florence?

Gullet science

Parachute kerfuffle

The Medici "myth"

The party's over

Filet mignon

Part four. Entrées, second service: Medici à la Parisienne, early 1600s

Bourbon Street

Deserts and desserts

Relais race

Blunt is better

Royal jackrabbits

A profession of foie

Pardon my French; did you say Mazzarino?

Thicker than water

Part five. Entrées, troisième service: Versailles à la Royale, 1638-1715

Versailles detour

Order in the court!

Calorie count

Hot to trot

Café break

Blue mouths and green thumbs

A cabbage is a cabbage is a cabbage

Delusions of grandeur

Le goose is cooked!

Star suicides continued

Eat like a king

Part six. Entrées, quatrième service: ancienne nouvelle, 1700s

Regency style

On the menu

Ancienne nouvelle

Quintessential reading

Voltaire revolted

À la Royale à la carte

The restaurants revolution

The original see-and-be-seen scene

Spring back, fall forward

Part seven. Entremets, cinquième service: regime change, late 1700s-early 1800s

Monsieur Patate

Liberty, gluttony, fraternity!

Pig's trotters, roast chicken, and salty blood

A tale of two gastronomes

Alimentary, dear Grimod!

Sanctifying the Devil

Something is rotten in Paris

Savarin cake walk

The heavyweights

The pleasure principle

Part eight. Hors d'oeuvres: dining out, 1800s

Hauteur cuisine

Chef à la king

The holy hog

The belly of Zola

Carnal delights

Nile cruise

Part nine. Dessert: modern times, mid-1800s-late 1900s

Grand Boulevardiers

Potluck

Bubble, bubble

Boil, broil, braise, and brew

The original wine bar

Bistro à go-go

Rarefied and reverential

Prince versus king

Curnonsky quipster extraordinaire

Larger than

Soft-power cuisine

Part ten. Digestif: neo-retro-post-postmodern nouvelle d'auteur, 1970s-the present

Passé present

Decline and fall

Bonne nouvelle.