A Taste of Paris: A History of the Parisian Love Affair with Food

There is something about the history and culture of Paris that has made it a food lover’s paradise.

Long before Marie Antoinette said, “Let them eat cake!,” the Romans of Paris devoured foie gras, and live oysters rushed in from the Atlantic; a Medieval cookbook describes a thirty-two part meal; and during the last great banquet at Versailles a year before the Revolution, gourmand Louis XVI savored thirty-two main dishes and sixteen desserts.

Acclaimed author David Downie leads us on an insider’s gourmet virtual tour of Paris and its neighborhoods, following the contours of history and the geography of the city, and shedding light on why the rich culinary heritage of France still makes Paris the ultimate arbiter in the world of food. Downie will usher us from Paris’s past to its present — from Roman butcher shops to classic Belle Epoque bistros serving diners today, as well as Marie Antoinette’s vegetable garden that still supplies produce, no longer to the queen, but to Alain Ducasse and his acclaimed restaurant inside the palace of Versailles.











When: Mon., Oct. 30, 2017 at 7:00 pm
Where: The 92nd Street Y, New York
1395 Lexington Ave.
212-415-5500
Price: $29
Buy tickets/get more info now
See other events in these categories:

There is something about the history and culture of Paris that has made it a food lover’s paradise.

Long before Marie Antoinette said, “Let them eat cake!,” the Romans of Paris devoured foie gras, and live oysters rushed in from the Atlantic; a Medieval cookbook describes a thirty-two part meal; and during the last great banquet at Versailles a year before the Revolution, gourmand Louis XVI savored thirty-two main dishes and sixteen desserts.

Acclaimed author David Downie leads us on an insider’s gourmet virtual tour of Paris and its neighborhoods, following the contours of history and the geography of the city, and shedding light on why the rich culinary heritage of France still makes Paris the ultimate arbiter in the world of food. Downie will usher us from Paris’s past to its present — from Roman butcher shops to classic Belle Epoque bistros serving diners today, as well as Marie Antoinette’s vegetable garden that still supplies produce, no longer to the queen, but to Alain Ducasse and his acclaimed restaurant inside the palace of Versailles.

Buy tickets/get more info now