french monarchs and nobility are
remembered as perhaps
one of the worst ruling classes in
history
and that is saying a lot as the majority
of the french population starved
the french nobility lived lavish lives
and ate some of the most exquisite foods
to exist king louie otherwise known as
the
sun king was so fond of extravagant and
rich dishes
that he would make an exhibition of his
dining
welcome to nutty history and today let's
peek inside the court of versailles
to find out what they were serving in
those fancy dinners called
the grand cover
the desire to peek into celebrity life
is not something that started on
television in the 90s
but it goes centuries back louis xiv
the sun king was famously known for his
eating and he was so proud of his
appetite that he would make a spectacle
out of it
the grand cover was a ritual in which
the king and queen ate their dinner in
front of members of the public
and the grand cover was not called grand
for no reason
the menu consisted of a huge collection
of 20 to
30 dishes according to his sister-in-law
princess palatine
the king had an insatiable appetite i
mean he could eat four bowls of soup
a whole pheasant and a partridge and a
large plate of salad
and then two slices of ham plus mutton
aju with garlic
a plate of pastry all followed by fruit
and hard boiled eggs
do not go in there man this must be like
having thanksgiving dinner at mama joe's
every other night
no wonder louis xiv died immensely
overweight
and had his left leg turned gangrenous
truffles are considered a luxury delight
because
they're hard to find frustrating to grow
and impossible to store for any length
of time
but they also are mind-bogglingly
delicious and
aromatic which makes them worth it
however
there was a time when french aristocrats
would not eat them
over their dead bodies as truffles grew
in the ground
the elites did not consider them worthy
of the upper class dinner tables
and shunned truffles calling it peasant
food
but then it all changed with louis xiv
love of
all kinds of food coach truffles became
an important part of dinner
and even marquis de luvoir included them
in his banquet of 1690.
only a year after that francois massillo
one of the star chefs of versailles
revolutionized already delicious
croquettes
by stuffing them with truffles and cream
cheese
bon appetit if you are hungry and you
want to dine in
you might want to make reservations
cakes pastries and souffles are all
delicious treats on their own
but when they were made for the french
royalty they had to be more than
just desserts when louis xv married
polish princess marie lesinska
she brought the famous polish chef
nicholas stroher alongside her to
versailles nicholas introduced france to
the
baba cake and the whole royal court went
gaga over
baba what was the secret ingredient you
might ask
you're asking aren't you he was soaking
those otherwise standard cakes
in the finest of wines the 18th century
brought a new craze for delicate foods
among the aristocrats
and the many layered mia became common
among royal dining
pastries consisted of multiple layers of
not only cake but
jams and creams were quite trendy back
then
[Music]
while louis xiv was in love with food
his successor louis xv
was infamous for chasing women according
to his sister-in-law
his standards were so low that anyone
would do for him
provided she is a woman
on the contrary there was queen mary
lesinska
devoted to developing and enriching the
french cuisine according to
her sweet tooth one of her inspirations
turned into a dish
is boucher alarena which translates into
a queen's bite
broken down it essentially is a savory
pastry with chicken
and mushrooms she was also responsible
for bringing meringue to france
a dish which was a favorite of her
daughter-in-law mary antoinette as well
mmm meringue please don't ask me to
share
louis xv mistress madame pompadour was
dining on a bird's stomach somewhere
and she was not alone when it came to
eating quirky
the cookbooks in that era consisted of
weird foods which were a fad back then
french elites in the 18th century love
to shock their guests
by serving novelty foods just to get a
reaction
they would cook bizarre combinations
like chicken and lamb bladders
and goose liver filled with fat what in
the entire chicken fricassey is going on
there
imagine you sit down to eat dinner and
there's a baby cow snout poking from the
dish at you
or you were hoping for oysters when you
heard they are serving seafood
and instead snail's rubbery cousin
winkle
slithered its way onto your plate mmm
tasty this weird trend of the 18th
century is why today
french's cuisine proudly serves pig's
feet and ox's tongue has exotic and
decadent food
there's a lot of pigs going around in
wheelchairs because they can't walk
because they ate their feet
someone say tick-tock reel perhaps the
world is lucky that the french didn't
have tick-tock back in the day
or else who knows how far that
ridiculous trend would have gone
[Music]
mary antoinette had a bit of a sweet
tooth she too brought a chef like her
mother-in-law when she arrived at the
french court from vienna
however her chef was no pastry chef he
was a chocolate chef
her love for chocolate was hardly unique
but given that chocolate was a treat
reserved for the wealthy
she enjoyed it quite exclusively the
chef
came up with many now famous chocolate
concoctions for mary antoinette
but nothing beats the delicious hot
chocolate with orange blossoms
it might sound weird but surprisingly it
is noted to be
quite refreshing but mary wasn't the one
who introduced
france to delicious succulent luscious
chocolates oh that credit goes to anne
of austria
queen of louis xiii and mother to the
sun king
the sun king himself was responsible for
making consumption of chocolate popular
among parisian nobility
and turned chocolate into a habitual
feature of her size cuisine
mary antoinette's father-in-law louis xv
also preceded the queen's love for hot
cocoa
he was so fond of it that he would not
even wait for servants and go to the
kitchen to make it himself
his mistresses yeah he had more than one
shared his fondness of chocolates as
well
the king truly believed in the
aphrodisiac powers of the tasty treat
and he fed his lovely ladies a lot of
desserts to get some hot
lovely relations mary was not just fond
of chocolate
she's also responsible for making don
perrion a known name among the champagne
connoisseurs
shall we propose a toast her new year's
balls were incomplete without bottles of
dom perignon champagne
mary through dinner parties and let's
just say they were the craziest parties
the world had
ever seen so what do you think
if you could go back in time would you
party with mary antoinette
let us know in the comments now go eat
something
and thanks for watching nutty history
you