On Monday I began the weeklong course at La Sorbonne. Entitled cuisine et gastronomie françaises: un art exceptionnel, this class is perfect to supplement my project as it is essentially a lesson on the history of French food culture. This post is about 3 days overdue as I’ve been absorbing all that this course has to offer and contemplating the best way to integrate the information into my mission. All of the lessons so far have had valuable fact that we can all use to better our relationship with food. To give you an idea of what this class entails, here’s the schedule. Every day this week we have a 3 hour lecture period with the professor from 9:30am-12:30pm. Then each day comes with a different accompanying session. On Monday we had a full dinner at a wonderful restaurant. On Tuesday there was a wine and cheese tasting (un atelier vines et fromages) at which one of the professors at the university led us through 4 pairings. Then, on Wednesday, there was a tour of the history of the heart of the city (la cœur de Paris) during which we discussed a lot of the original ways in which Parisians ate and bought food. On Thursday there was a literary tour of la rive gauche (the part of the city to the left of the Seine river) during which the professor discussed cafés famous for serving literary figures and some of the original cafés in the city (one since 1686!) that are still serving people today.
This is the original campus of Sorbonne Université!
My BIGGEST takeaway so far is from the absolute first day of class. Our professor was discussing French cuisine as it was in the Middle Ages and every other fact that came out of his lecture had something to do with how involved the people were with their food. During this time period there was no form of a public meal (ie: this is before restaurants and cafés came into existence) in France so the custom was to cook your own food or visit a friend for their kitchen. It struck me how ingenious people were as they were developing recipes and finding a use for ingredients from around the world. Everyone had an interaction with the ingredients of their meals and these interactions led to the beautiful phenomena that are the French cuisines. Yes, plural, cuisines, good eye there ;). Cuisine, in this context, refers to the foods of the region. As France developed, each region had different access to ingredients, different social structures, different economies, etc. All of these different factors came into play in the development of the dishes served.
The rules of eating were also developing at this time. It was interesting to read an account of the rules from 1530. A lot of them, which, keep in mind, had to be written down and explained for people at the time, are simple manners that we now follow without thinking. (They had to come from somewhere!) The first rule on the list is “wash your hands before sitting down”. Then there are some fancier ones like”do not take the honor of sitting first if it is not yours to be had” and “wipe your mouth before taking a drink”. Another rule spoke in depth about maintaining the convivialité of the meal and respecting any social hierarchies. Overall, these rules would create a sense of respect for the ritual that is eating and that is because a meal involves much more than consuming food. It means slowing down or taking a break from your day and taking the time to cook and eat. What inherently follows is a period of time during which you can think, socialize, unwind, and reflect. Not only does eating give us the fuel to pursue our everyday goals, it also comes with an automatic break, a point in time when you can stop working and recharge. The meal is a concept in which few of us engage anymore.
Our class dinner on Monday! We ate a a traditional French restaurant, Au port du Salut, in the Latin quarter right next to the Panthéon! Our class was 4 students (including me) so some of the University faculty joined us.
Now the reason I started this post with: let’s bring the food back to the people, is because here, the French are still connected to their food. Supermarkets carry fresh foods and the ritual of the meal, or le repas, is still a common sight. There are cafés on every street corner and restaurants in between. Everyone has to eat so it may be a bit strange that I am talking so in-depth about incredible is it that the French eat meals. But you know what I don’t see here? I don’t see people walking and eating, or even walking and drinking for that matter (and I’ve walked about 8 miles a day for the last week). In America, the culture is to eat when you have time, or, if not, then wait until you are very hungry and squeeze in a quick bite. Eat at work, eat in the car, eat on your walk. But don’t sit down, don’t take a break for food. I am not trying to breach this subject as if it’s the first time you’ve heard of it. I’m bringing it up because you may have brushed it off the first or second time as a social norm that’s untouchable.
I just want to remind you that social change comes from the people. So, if you feel that you are disconnected from your food, start taking steps to change that. May I suggest starting with learning about your food. This means learn what you like and what you don’t, explore all the options and understand the difference between processed foods and unprocessed foods. After that, understand the difference between healthy and unhealthy foods. If you’ve made it this far into this article, I would like to hear from you. In the comments, do you sit down for a meal most of the time? Do your friends and their families do this too? If so, what is the sense of that meal? Is it a processed frozen dinner that you heat up, a fast food delight, or a home cooked meal? How often do eat on the go or through work? And, would you eat differently if you could? Finally, what’s stopping you? It’s very real in our society to be in a situation where you don’t have access to proper food but it is also very realize to be overwhelmed by all the choices you have. Something I am pursuing is the importance of using law and public policy to guarantee access to unprocessed foods. To start, let’s educate ourselves on real, raw, traditional food (not that processed, prepackaged stuff) then, let’s get this change happening so everyone can access the healthy stuff.
So, let’s start a conversation about our life style choices when it comes to food and eating because health isn’t just about the type of food you consume, it’s also about how you eat it and when. Our final class at La Sorbonne is about the French Paradox and the science of a healthy diet. I’m excited to have that experience and then bring it to all of you!
Until next time,
Abigail
Simply Food 