"It has injected a subversive force into this very typical French cuisine. With a chef sacrificing everything for her art, the spectacular cuisine reproduced in this movie calls out people's yearning for spiritual happiness. And her art has reproduced her homeland. This reappearance of place and time provides the most powerful example of the magical power produced by cooking in the play." — Sociologist Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson As quoted above, "Babette's Banquet" is not just a visual food drama, but the important thing is that it evokes a certain noble spirit through the beauty of food. Of course, this is not only the result of precious ingredients and artistic creation, but also contains the multiple meanings given by regional customs and history. Below we will attach the recipe of "Babette’s Feast", starting from the first "Green Turtle Soup" "And talking about the restaurant where Babette worked.
In the movie "Babette's Banquet", chef Babette mentioned at the end that Café Anglais (Café Anglais), a well-known French restaurant where he had worked, not only exists, but is also very famous in history. This French restaurant located at the intersection of Boulevard des Italiens and rue de Marivaux in Paris, France. Although it was forced to close in 1913, it has left a strong mark in the history of dining in France and Europe. Pen.
The restaurant opened in 1802. At first, some coachmen and servants came to dine. Later, some actors from the Paris Opera next door visited. Although the restaurant has been upgraded in the following decades, it serves grilled meat with rave reviews. But it wasn't until Adolphe Dugléré became the chef of the restaurant in 1866 that this French restaurant officially became a gathering place and dining place for celebrities. However, its real reputation is the grand banquet held in the restaurant in 1867 called "Dinner of the Three Emperors" (Dinner of the Three Emperors). This feast brought together three banquets of the then kings and princes, including the Russian Tsar Alexander II and his prince (the future Tsar Alexander III), the Prussian King William I (the future German emperor), and the Prime Minister of Prussia Bismarck. Important guests who came to Paris to participate in the World Expo. During the eight-hour banquet, the restaurant provided a total of 16 dishes and 8 wines. To this day, the table and a copy of the menu used for this banquet are still kept as a display in the same historic La Tour d'Argent restaurant. The first green turtle soup that appeared in the movie was the unique secret recipe of Adolphe Dugléré, who was in charge at the time.
Potage a'la Tortue Green Turtle Soup was once very popular in Victorian British upper class society, but sea turtles were very expensive at that time, and people tried their best to make fake sea turtle soup with cow head and internal organs rich in gelatin. As it appears in the book "Alice in Wonderland": The fake turtle that Alice dreams of has a bull's head, which shows the luxury of the green turtle soup.
The movie starts with dinner after prayers, wine is poured into the glass, and turtle soup is poured into each guest's bowl. Like cooking itself, the film conveys a sense of consciousness. Sociologist Ferguson pointed out when discussing "Babette's Banquet": Compared with photographic prints, films can capture the interactive process required by culinary arts. Just as written recipes can only hint at the senses, words cannot communicate. Gives a comprehensive and all-encompassing taste. Although the richness of the dishes in "Babette's Banquet" is not as rich as the scale of the "Three Kings Banquet" in history, the precious ingredients and the complicated production process are still amazing.
Blini Demidoff au Caviar Demidoff pancakes with caviar
The small pancakes are decorated with black fish roe-Demidov pancakes with caviar. This was originally a Russian dish. The traditional Slavic Blini pancakes are mostly made from wheat and occasionally with buckwheat. Pancakes are usually served with butter, sour cream, jam, honey or fish roe. Because its round shape was recognized by the Slavs as a symbol of the sun in the early days, the tradition of making Blini at the end of winter to commemorate the newborn sun is still used by Orthodox Christians to this day.
The name Demidoff comes from a prominent family in Russia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The family was included in the ranks of European nobles by Peter the Great by successfully manufacturing metal products. Their descendants became the most influential businessmen and one of the earliest industrialists in the Russian Empire. At its peak, it was even regarded as the second noble family after the Russian Imperial Family. Therefore, the pancakes that must be named the Demidov family are also extraordinary. This appetizer in the film is probably modified by the well-known Maison Dorée restaurant in Paris, which is also located on the Avenue of Italy, or the second prince of San Donato, also known as Demido. The most expensive restaurant in Paris, frequented by Count Pavel Pavlovich Demidov of his husband’s family.
Caille en Sarcophage avec Sauce Périgourdine baked quail pastry pie wrapped in foie gras with truffle sauce
When the guests finished their appetizers and began to enjoy the wine, the dining area was filled with a special fragrance: grilled quail meringue pie wrapped in foie gras with truffle sauce. "Caille en Sarcophage" literally means "quail in a coffin" in French. This is one of the classic French dishes served only in the best restaurants in Paris. Fresh wild quail stuffed with foie gras are wrapped in pastry and soaked in a sauce made of black truffles hand-picked in the Périgord region of France. Perigord is now Dordogne, a province in southwestern France. This province with the most "France's most beautiful villages" is a gourmet paradise in the hearts of many French people, and it is also the place where foie gras and black truffles are produced.
The French have a special affection for foie gras and truffles, especially the black truffles produced locally in France, which ushered in the heyday of its development in the early 20th century. At that time, black truffles were just common fungi in farm dishes in southwestern France. After the two world wars, the French labor force dropped sharply, and the truffle planting industry suffered a heavy blow. With the limited production of artificial planting in the later period, the black truffle has become synonymous with noble ingredients. In addition to the white Alba truffle, Perigord truffle Compared with other truffles, it is more scarce and ideal, and the price is higher. In cooking, black truffle is used to add flavor to meat, fish, soup and risotto. Fresh French winter black truffles are often called "Périgord's diamonds", they are simple but delicate. From December to March of the following year, the French truffle market features delicious Perigord black truffles, which have a subtle aroma and earthy taste reminiscent of rich chocolate. In terms of time, January and February are the peak periods of the aroma and flavor of black truffles.
Baba au Rhum avec les Figues Rum Sponge Cake with Dried Figs
The dinner ended with a sponge cake with dried figs and rum. The early rum sponge cakes originated from babka in Ukraine and Poland, a tall cylindrical yeast cake, sometimes with ripples like skirts. Today's practice is to wait for the cake to be half dry and immerse it in a mixture of rum and vanilla syrup for better absorption. According to records, in 1835 or earlier, the rum sponge cake was launched by a bakery called La Maison Stohrer. The founder Stohler was a pastry chef for the exiled Polish King Stanisław I. In 1725, Maria Leszczyńska, the daughter of Stanislaw I, married French King Louis XV and went to live in Versailles. At that time Stohler went to Paris as Mary's full-time pastry chef.
This bakery opened in 1730, located at 51 rue Montorgueil, is one of the oldest bakery in Paris. Montorgueil Street is full of restaurants, cafes, bakeries, fish shops, cheese shops, wine shops, agricultural products stalls and flower shops. It is a social base for Parisians when shopping. Going back to the century-old British cafe mentioned at the beginning of the article, its sudden closure in 1913 made Paris accept the prosperity brought by the outside world, and at the same time, it inevitably suffered the backlash of sacrificing part of its own social culture. The decline of the café is not only the end of a fascinating chapter in the history of Paris, but also the loss of the tradition of European elegance and aristocracy. Although the British coffee shop started as a leisure place, it reached its peak during the Second French Empire, and its dazzling light was unparalleled. In the most glorious days of the cafe, fashionable celebrities and literati were attracted by its quiet and comfortable environment, scrambling to practice the art of life here. Poets and journalists regard this as their club. Whether it is a British cafe or a golden house across the road, people who love life and art regard patronizing here as a way of enjoyment. Even the British cafes, which are at the cutting edge of the trend, have experienced a turning point in the changes of the times. During the period of material scarcity in Paris, other restaurants were selling dog meat with sheep’s heads hanging on them to maintain the decent surface. British cafes still focused on food quality and traditional temperament; after the Waterloo War, foreigners flocked to Paris. New hedonism, using bands to make gimmicks, British cafes are still unmoved and undisturbed by irrelevant novelties. And it is in such a flamboyant atmosphere that the purity of the restaurant has long been unable to satisfy the impetuous society. Although Paris has become the entertainment capital of Europe and the world, British cafes have gradually lost their old-school splendor. It can be said that the British coffee houses are also foreign nations, and they are also foreign nations.
Babette, the famous British cafe chef, had nothing but the clothes on his body when he first arrived in a Danish fishing village. The starred chef lives in the sisters Hua's house in the fishing village, taking care of the sisters and the poor and weak believers for spiritual comfort. The gift of cooking makes Babette re-examine the value of personal existence, and also makes the people at the table change due to a meal. In the call of food, everyone in the film realizes what is the weight of life-life and those who share life together. The film depicts far more than food. While people's experience of food is revived, it also awakens the soul's perception of beauty, making people watching this feast feel like it is on the scene.
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