Friday, July 18, 2025

The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture

 


Rebecca L. Spang’s The Invention of the Restaurant isn’t just about restaurants—it’s about what happens when food stops being survival and starts becoming story.


Focusing on late 18th- and early 19th-century Paris, Spang shows how the restaurant emerged not merely as a place to eat, but as a social stage, a democratic ritual, and a new form of public life. In the wake of the French Revolution, as monarchies fell and markets rose, people began to crave not just nourishment—but civility, comfort, and a sense of identity. The restaurant became their theatre.


Spang weaves historical records, menus, pamphlets, and first-person accounts into a tapestry of change:

  • From communal mess halls to personal menu choices
  • From royal kitchens to entrepreneurial chefs
  • From obligation to pleasure


For readers interested in how architecture, service, and social aspiration intersect, this book is a revelation. It’s academic, yes, but never dull. Spang writes with both rigour and flair, treating menus and meal customs as artifacts of personal and political revolution.


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