Tasting French terroir : the history of an idea /
Thomas Parker.
- Oakland, California : University of California Press, (c)2015.
- 1 online resource.
- California studies in food and culture ; 54 .
Includes bibliographies and index.
Introduction : terroir and the culinary roots of French identity -- Rabelais' table and the poets of the Pléiade : from culinary universalism to literary regionalism -- The plantification of people -- Courtside purity and the Académie française's attack on the earth -- France's green evolution : from provincial fields to perfect gardens and terroir's expulsion from Versailles -- Saint-Évremond and the invention of geographical connoisseurship -- Terroir and nation building : the story of Boulainvilliers, du Bos, and the case of class -- The normalization of terroir : Paris and the provinces -- Conclusion : terroir and nation: from geographic identity to psychogeography.
"This book explores the origins and significance of the French concept of terroir, demonstrating that the way the French eat their food and drink their wine today derives from a cultural mythology that evolved between the Renaissance and the Revolution. Through close readings and an examination of little-known texts from diverse disciplines, Thomas Parker traces terroir's evolution, providing a privileged insight into how gastronomic mores were linked to aesthetics in language, gardens, and painting and how the French used the power of place to define the natural world, explain comportment, and frame France as a nation"--Provided by publisher.