0:00:20 > 0:00:25he decides to have one last party -
0:00:38 > 0:00:41Refined, rarefied and elite.
0:00:43 > 0:00:48Top of the bill is the two ounce,
0:01:12 > 0:01:17ready to serve...piping hot.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38They then place the exquisite
0:01:38 > 0:01:41with its head dangling from
0:01:43 > 0:01:46munching on the tiny lungs,
0:01:51 > 0:01:54They say that as your teeth sink into the ortolan's fragile flesh,
0:01:58 > 0:02:04the salt air of the Mediterranean,
0:02:04 > 0:02:07Eating the bird is a symbolic act,
0:02:07 > 0:02:10very soul of France itself.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21It's impossible to imagine a British Prime Minister in the same position,
0:02:24 > 0:02:27with the same relish as Mitterrand brought to this final meal.
0:02:31 > 0:02:33In eating this transgressive feast,
0:02:39 > 0:02:43this bizarre banquet challenges
0:02:43 > 0:02:46that food is a mere commodity.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09and what that tells us about their identity and culture.
0:03:09 > 0:03:13But first, you might want to know what happened to Mitterrand.
0:03:16 > 0:03:47but two of the tiny ortolan birds.
0:03:47 > 0:03:52a journalist, and now a professor.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05than anywhere else in Europe.
0:04:05 > 0:04:11But the France of the 21st century, with its Americanised golf buggies,
0:04:32 > 0:04:36Built for Louis XIV, the palace was intended as a show piece,
0:04:36 > 0:04:41to prove to the world, the supreme
0:04:54 > 0:04:56The gardens, lights, and mirrors,
0:05:00 > 0:05:02this is the nearest to heaven you will ever see on Earth.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06It is surely one of the most
0:05:06 > 0:05:09to human vanity ever created.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20after an emblem on a shield he wore parading around Paris.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24he really thought he was a god
0:05:28 > 0:05:32cracked his whip and declared,
0:05:41 > 0:05:45would become the great nation it had always deserved to be.
0:05:45 > 0:05:46France would be the new Rome,
0:05:46 > 0:05:50the new cultural and religious
0:05:56 > 0:05:59the Italian influences bought in
0:05:59 > 0:06:02Catherine de Medici were out.
0:06:02 > 0:06:06replaced by a robust French style,
0:06:26 > 0:06:29To help him in his endeavour, he installed in his kitchen
0:06:29 > 0:06:32Francois Pierre de La Varenne
0:06:40 > 0:06:43he was also the author of a seminal
0:06:43 > 0:06:58called Le Cuisinier Francois.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32turned into a ritual communion
0:07:32 > 0:07:35between the Sun King and his scoff.
0:07:48 > 0:07:53pheasant, partridge, salad, mutton with gravy and garlic,
0:08:00 > 0:08:04It would often last through the evening and into the next day.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21to be overawed by the king's
0:08:23 > 0:08:26this is the first time in history,
0:08:26 > 0:08:28that food had been linked to power
0:08:28 > 0:08:30and the French state itself.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37And this man eats like a god."
0:08:52 > 0:08:56became so much a part of legend
0:09:10 > 0:09:15who in April 1671, was ordered to organise a meal for the Sun King
0:09:15 > 0:09:18and 2,000 of his closest friends.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24to keep up, he had after all,
0:09:24 > 0:09:27if sickly, Chantilly cream.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36In the sumptuous 2001 film Vatel, the chef is played brilliantly
0:09:36 > 0:09:40by Gerard Depardieu who is seen overseeing the mighty feast.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46with fish as the headline course.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50Catholics eat fish on Friday.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53But fish was a risky choice,
0:09:53 > 0:09:57as it had to come from over 100 miles away in Boulogne.
0:09:57 > 0:10:03And if the weather turned nasty there would be no fishing -
0:10:03 > 0:10:06waits for the fish to arrive,
0:10:06 > 0:10:10the suspense is unbearable.
0:10:14 > 0:10:48When he is told that there have
0:11:18 > 0:11:21with a Gallic shrug of indifference
0:11:30 > 0:11:33elite in Paris and Versailles
0:11:36 > 0:11:37in the rest of the country,
0:11:37 > 0:11:39the dish of the day had not changed
0:11:49 > 0:11:52In this, the French weren't
0:11:55 > 0:11:58in their attempts to experiment
0:11:58 > 0:12:02with their diet with anything they could find, even rats like these.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15in France, the poor made bread
0:12:15 > 0:12:18out of the bones of the corpses
0:12:23 > 0:12:27a respectable bourgeoisie roasted the carcasses of her children.
0:12:29 > 0:12:30She did this over five days.
0:12:44 > 0:12:48everybody knew that the court, under the successive reigns of Louis XIV,
0:12:53 > 0:12:55as if it was going out of fashion.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01The target of the accumulated
0:13:10 > 0:13:14with her extravagant banquets
0:13:18 > 0:13:22Marie Antoinette is provocatively played here by Kirsten Dunst.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26It is the perfect incarnation
0:13:26 > 0:13:31who, when told that the French populace had no bread to eat,
0:13:37 > 0:13:41Marie Antoinette's famous remark has
0:13:42 > 0:13:45cruelty of the aristocracy.
0:13:45 > 0:13:53But there is more going on here
0:13:55 > 0:14:01does to make a loaf of bread.
0:14:05 > 0:14:07that was about to engulf France
0:14:07 > 0:14:09no-one wanted to hear common sense
0:14:09 > 0:14:17a poor, silly, foreign queen.
0:14:19 > 0:14:24But the anger at the inequality
0:14:30 > 0:14:43and a vast seething underclass
0:14:56 > 0:14:59The whole world knows the tale
0:14:59 > 0:15:02the storming of the Bastille,
0:15:13 > 0:15:18the victory of the sans-culottes,
0:15:23 > 0:15:28and one that has fuelled many
0:15:30 > 0:15:33the victory of the bourgeoisie
0:15:36 > 0:15:40from the wreckage of the Revolution
0:15:40 > 0:15:43possession, total political power.
0:15:47 > 0:15:49bakers, merchants and lawyers.
0:16:07 > 0:16:10there had only been a handful
0:16:12 > 0:16:16the long French tradition of dining
0:16:23 > 0:16:27One of the grandest restaurants around was here at Le Grand Vefour.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38Politicians and philosophers mixed
0:16:42 > 0:16:46the triumph of French civilisation
0:17:03 > 0:17:07with all the ruthless finesse
0:18:32 > 0:18:37So, there you go. Vol-au-vent, a revolution in puff pastry.
0:18:43 > 0:18:44One of the restaurants clients
0:18:44 > 0:18:49was a young Corsican freedom fighter
0:18:53 > 0:18:58an almost untranslatable word
0:19:17 > 0:19:20that Napoleon was gastronome.
0:19:20 > 0:19:22He was bored silly by food.
0:19:22 > 0:19:24Like a kid who can't wait to get
0:19:32 > 0:19:34But even though he was the very
0:19:34 > 0:19:39Napoleon understood the political and cultural significance of food.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44he instructed his foreign minister
0:19:44 > 0:19:47and grand gourmet Talleyrand,
0:19:57 > 0:20:01Talleyrand on a mission, purchased the magisterial Chateau de Valencay,
0:20:01 > 0:20:05on the Loire with 1.6 million francs of government money.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17He bought with him his own secret weapon, Marie-Antoine Careme,
0:20:25 > 0:20:27to talk to one of his disciples
0:22:10 > 0:22:12achievement was to convince
0:22:12 > 0:22:17other nations of the inherent superiority of French cuisine.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30All good dinner party hosts
0:22:30 > 0:22:34know that nothing seduces more effectively than a good meal.
0:22:34 > 0:22:36Napoleon took this to new heights
0:22:36 > 0:22:40when he charged his chief diplomat Talleyrand and his cook Careme
0:22:40 > 0:22:45to conquer Europe in culinary terms
0:22:45 > 0:22:47So, at the Congress of Vienna,
0:22:50 > 0:22:53to secure more French votes,
0:23:01 > 0:23:04rations he may have been saved
0:23:04 > 0:23:06that was to be his undoing.
0:23:06 > 0:23:10But his untimely death in 1821
0:23:10 > 0:23:13did little to stop, the now time
0:23:13 > 0:23:15of mixing food and politics.
0:23:33 > 0:23:38Having turned Paris into the city we know today, with its cafes,
0:23:38 > 0:23:41boulevards and public squares,
0:23:41 > 0:23:44the building of a vast food market
0:23:44 > 0:23:45in the centre of the capital.
0:23:45 > 0:23:47Les Halles, as it was known,
0:23:47 > 0:23:50was to be a showcase of the very best food in the known world.
0:23:55 > 0:23:59A beautiful structure filled with fruit, vegetables, cheese, meat
0:23:59 > 0:24:02and wine from all over France,
0:24:02 > 0:24:05to the working and drinking
0:24:05 > 0:24:11This was truly the Democratic
0:24:20 > 0:24:24you can a sense of Les Halles
0:24:26 > 0:24:31Which is, in fact now, the largest
0:24:43 > 0:24:59Massive aisles are set apart for fish, vegetables and here, meat.
0:24:59 > 0:25:04"and alley ways always leading to
0:25:04 > 0:25:09The people here had their own slang
0:25:15 > 0:25:22It was a semi-criminal underworld
0:25:49 > 0:25:53stretching from North Africa
0:25:53 > 0:25:56known as the "queen of the world".
0:26:03 > 0:26:05abruptly and without warning.
0:26:05 > 0:26:08Germany, the old rival to the East
0:26:08 > 0:26:12had long coveted the disputed French territory of Alsace-Lorraine.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15In 1870, the Germans deliberately
0:26:15 > 0:26:20and really quite dim Napoleon into declaring war on Germany.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23He had walked quite blindly
0:26:29 > 0:26:31The German armies mobilized
0:26:37 > 0:26:41in the winter of 1870 - 1871,
0:26:56 > 0:27:02On the 25 of December 1870, one restaurant created a menu that
0:27:02 > 0:27:05and his furry friends on the ark.
0:27:05 > 0:27:09For starters there was butter,
0:27:13 > 0:27:18Then there was camel roasted
0:27:18 > 0:27:21bear ribs and pepper sauce.
0:27:21 > 0:27:24Wolf legs with venison and antelope
0:27:24 > 0:27:27Don't fancy that... and I am
0:27:27 > 0:27:29how about the kangaroo stew?
0:27:35 > 0:27:38the zoo menu was off limits.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41Haute cuisine, safari style
0:27:41 > 0:27:45Instead, they had to do with
0:27:45 > 0:27:49and the ever adaptable rat.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53Butchers at the time were known
0:27:53 > 0:27:56plumper and smelling of ale than
0:28:01 > 0:28:03Following a prolonged siege,
0:28:13 > 0:28:17losing the provinces of both Alsace
0:28:17 > 0:28:22and Lorraine, the French found a silver lining on the food front,
0:28:41 > 0:28:44The first beer pump was installed
0:28:44 > 0:28:53Frederic Bofinger in his brand new
0:29:07 > 0:29:3919th century ideal modernity.
0:29:41 > 0:29:46By the 1890's the convulsions of the recent past seemed a world away,
0:29:46 > 0:29:49as Parisians threw themselves
0:29:54 > 0:29:57as the capital of pleasure.
0:29:57 > 0:30:02The 1890s city was also attracting
0:30:02 > 0:30:05a euphemism for specifically
0:30:31 > 0:30:34On the 22nd of September 1900,
0:30:41 > 0:30:44were summoned to celebrate the anniversary of the first republic.
0:30:56 > 0:31:00But the aim of the banquet was not just to feed the great and good
0:31:00 > 0:31:04to make a public spectacle of it.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08of Louis XIV some 300 years earlier,
0:31:08 > 0:31:13literally "la gloire" on a plate.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24The catering company behind this epic blow out, is still
0:31:24 > 0:31:29with us today, and commanded
0:33:43 > 0:33:44What this banquet was all about
0:33:55 > 0:33:58More to the point it celebrated
0:33:58 > 0:34:00held dear to their hearts -
0:34:00 > 0:34:04civic democracy and fine cooking.
0:34:04 > 0:34:07What better and unbeatable emblem
0:34:09 > 0:34:13But the banquet was only part of Loubet's grandiose initiative
0:34:15 > 0:34:18the Grand and Petit Palais,
0:34:18 > 0:34:23and the Gare du Lyon were all built.
0:34:26 > 0:34:30From the outside, the station evokes the belle epoque fairly discreetly.
0:34:51 > 0:34:55This is a place that began life
0:34:55 > 0:34:57as the Gare du Lyon station buffet
0:34:57 > 0:35:01but there is nothing modest or humble about what's on offer now.
0:35:01 > 0:35:05The restaurant, Le Train Bleu,
0:35:05 > 0:35:07of French self-belief optimism
0:35:10 > 0:35:15It's about food, romance, gravy and glory all rolled into one.
0:35:21 > 0:35:24No room for understatement here.
0:35:36 > 0:35:41France was now a very rich country
0:35:41 > 0:35:45In this temple of gastronomy
0:35:52 > 0:35:55are not random images of foreign places to distract the traveller
0:35:55 > 0:36:05the world of French civilisation.
0:36:36 > 0:36:43in search of new and exquisite
0:36:43 > 0:36:45fertile ground that had produced it.
0:37:00 > 0:37:02The end of the 19th century
0:37:09 > 0:37:11the Frenchman's personal chariot
0:37:11 > 0:37:16which allowed him to set out and discover his native land anew.
0:37:16 > 0:37:21On the new little routes national -
0:37:21 > 0:37:25it was possible to set off from Paris in your new-fangled automobile
0:37:25 > 0:37:28your way through the country
0:37:28 > 0:37:32armed with a useful new guide
0:37:35 > 0:37:39With this one historic publication,
0:37:39 > 0:37:43and food were brought together and, in the now well-established
0:37:43 > 0:37:47French democratic tradition,
0:37:54 > 0:37:57The figure we know in English
0:38:04 > 0:38:07The phrase comes from the Latin
0:38:07 > 0:38:09"Now is the time to drink"..
0:38:09 > 0:38:12one early guide for motorists
0:38:12 > 0:38:16advised the new knights of the road to take brandy or Belgian beer
0:38:16 > 0:38:19on the new routes national.
0:38:23 > 0:38:26The best place to eat on the route, and arguably in all of France
0:38:26 > 0:38:31made rich by the silk trade.
0:38:33 > 0:38:36was the capital of the world,
0:38:38 > 0:38:41of anti-Parisian ideas in food
0:38:52 > 0:38:56delicious food in the world
0:38:59 > 0:39:06The staple diet is ears, feet,
0:39:06 > 0:39:09It's not a place where the phrase "Meat is Murder" holds much sway.
0:39:16 > 0:39:19found that Lyonnais delicacies needed a little explanation
0:39:19 > 0:39:24a sausage made out of pig's stomach,
0:39:24 > 0:39:33"Is like politics," he said, "It needs to smell of shit."
0:42:26 > 0:42:31the tastes of Lyon's delicacies are perhaps a little unsettling
0:42:31 > 0:42:34but the Frenchman has always
0:42:37 > 0:42:40of apparently challenging dishes
0:42:46 > 0:42:49I've dined with French people who have quaked with terror
0:42:49 > 0:42:52with an Anglo-Saxon-style curry
0:42:52 > 0:42:55but, for the French, the wilder
0:43:04 > 0:43:07But this detail of history seems
0:43:34 > 0:43:39The ensuing war of independence
0:43:39 > 0:43:47brought terrorism to the streets
0:43:47 > 0:43:50fanatics challenged the might
0:44:03 > 0:44:06gave Algeria its independence
0:44:06 > 0:44:10in 1962, France was faced with
0:44:27 > 0:44:32Both communities flocked to Marseilles, Lyon and Paris,
0:44:32 > 0:44:36often finding life here tougher than what they'd left behind.
0:44:36 > 0:44:39In a modest attempt to remember
0:44:39 > 0:44:44they bought to these cities, the smells and tastes of their cuisine.
0:44:48 > 0:44:51One of their greatest exponents
0:46:15 > 0:46:22without question, delicious
0:47:00 > 0:47:07has a political significance.
0:47:07 > 0:47:10Gruyere is supposed to be the mark
0:47:10 > 0:47:20Actually nobody knows why this is
0:47:20 > 0:47:23and, to my mind, always leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31The Right was the dominant force
0:47:31 > 0:47:35but what separated President George Pompidou from de Gaulle
0:47:51 > 0:47:56In the 1970s, the country was undergoing a cultural revolution,
0:47:58 > 0:48:01everything new and futuristic.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10even infected architecture.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13AS IF FROM FUNNELS: The architectural style of the Pompidou centre,
0:48:13 > 0:48:16surely the ugliest building in Paris, is a perfect example
0:48:16 > 0:48:20of the perverse and arrogant belief that newness for its own sake
0:48:22 > 0:48:25is what explains the fashion
0:48:27 > 0:48:31a minimalist technique perfected by the super-chef Paul Bocuse.
0:48:31 > 0:48:36Actually, it's all just an exquisite form of culinary showing off,
0:48:43 > 0:48:46about this culinary minimalism
0:48:46 > 0:48:49that had gripped the French
0:50:36 > 0:50:38But essentially it was a fad
0:50:38 > 0:50:42covering over the brutal truth
0:50:44 > 0:50:48stale and, well, a bit worn out
0:50:48 > 0:50:51The unthinkable was happening.
0:50:51 > 0:51:00French food or bouffe had gone bad.
0:51:02 > 0:51:05bad foreign food, then it meant
0:51:05 > 0:51:09the noxious stuff the French housewives bought in supermarkets.
0:51:12 > 0:51:14"that old France was dead or dying
0:51:23 > 0:51:27Even President Francois Mitterrand,
0:51:27 > 0:51:31an absolute ruler in the mould of Louis XIV, could do little
0:51:31 > 0:51:34to halt the tectonic shifts
0:51:34 > 0:51:38Anglo-American world in politics,
0:51:49 > 0:51:52the nail in the coffin came with
0:51:56 > 0:51:58Paris and then the whole of France
0:51:58 > 0:52:04and its plucky Belgian cousin Quick.
0:52:04 > 0:52:08But you could also argue that the
0:52:09 > 0:52:12as shown in Quentin Tarantino's
0:52:16 > 0:52:19You know what they call a quarter pounder with cheese in Paris?
0:52:19 > 0:52:21quarter pounder and cheese?
0:52:21 > 0:52:25what the fuck quarter pounder is.
0:52:26 > 0:52:28They call is a royale with cheese.
0:52:28 > 0:52:31Royale with cheese?! That's right. What do they call a Big Mac?
0:52:31 > 0:52:35but they call it Le Big Mac.
0:52:35 > 0:52:36FRENCH ACCENT: Le Big Mac?!
0:52:38 > 0:52:41What do they call a whopper? I don't know I didn't go in to a Burger King.
0:52:43 > 0:52:49What Tarantino is picking up on
0:52:49 > 0:52:52has become assimilated into French
0:52:54 > 0:52:58This restaurant may look like a normal McDonald's from the outside,
0:52:58 > 0:53:00but inside, it's a different world.
0:53:01 > 0:53:04For one thing you could also have
0:53:04 > 0:53:06a petit express, I don't know,
0:53:06 > 0:53:10a pain au raisin, or a croissant.
0:53:26 > 0:53:30Today France is the most profitable McDonald's market outside America.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37Meanwhile, traditional bistros and brasseries are closing down
0:53:37 > 0:53:40with a frightening rapidity.
0:53:40 > 0:53:43A crisis that was keenly felt even
0:53:43 > 0:53:49like the three-Michelin-starred
0:55:07 > 0:55:11Fusion food has replaced nouvelle cuisine as the fad of the day.
0:55:11 > 0:55:14Its modern, its multicultural,
0:55:18 > 0:55:21You could also say that this fusion
0:55:21 > 0:55:26applies to the current president - Nicolas Sarkozy - a man on a mission
0:55:34 > 0:55:38and sees any future French success
0:55:41 > 0:55:45by hard-headed pragmatists,
0:55:45 > 0:55:48where cooking takes second place
0:55:52 > 0:55:54dazzling the great heads of Europe
0:55:57 > 0:56:02anti-Mitterrand - he doesn't drink,
0:56:15 > 0:56:17the very opposite of what Mitterrand
0:56:20 > 0:56:24power, glory and the great food
0:56:26 > 0:56:30But don't worry I am not going to throw myself off the Eiffel Tower
0:56:32 > 0:56:35the country I first came to.
0:56:35 > 0:56:38This is a nation on its way
0:56:38 > 0:56:41business in the globalised world.
0:56:41 > 0:56:43You can see this everywhere,
0:56:48 > 0:56:50And, most of all, you see it
0:56:50 > 0:56:53of the quality of French cuisine.
0:56:53 > 0:56:56There's literally no time to eat well in the fast-moving
0:57:09 > 0:57:13The story of French cuisine
0:57:16 > 0:57:19was available to everybody.
0:57:19 > 0:57:22to the Franco-Prussian war,
0:57:22 > 0:57:37to the Algerian war of Independence,