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Food Fueled the French Revolution
… and how the revolution changed French food forever
Marie Antoinette probably never said the quote everyone associates with her — “let them eat cake.” The phrase, actually “let them eat brioche,” first showed up in one of Rousseau’s writings a couple of decades before the revolution, when Marie was still a child. The story stuck because, even though it wasn’t true, it felt true — Marie Antoinette and the others at Versailles were living high on the hog, during a time of starvation among the ordinary people of France.
It’s telling that the most famous sentence of the revolution centered on food. The French Revolution was about a lot of things — money, power, philosophical ideas, social hierarchy — but it was also about food. Eating was, of course, necessary for survival, but it was also an expression of wealth and status. Food helped to inspire the French Revolution, and the revolution had an impact on the way people ate afterward.
Inequality at the dinner table
What was dinner like in Versailles? Here’s a menu from one of Marie Antoinette’s lavish dinners:
