Gastronomic curiosity - N ° 1 - The great Vatel !, a feast of life or death ... WTF?

in #food6 years ago

Hello guys ;)!

Today I bring you an incredible story about...(Drums roll please!)...

Nothing more and nothing less than François Vatel, also known as The great Vatel.


(What a divine pose, in's it?XD)

I decided to dedicate my first gastronomic post to ** François Vatel** because he was an incredible chef with an incredible story; recognized in the gastronomy world as the father of the banquets, as well as the creator of the chantilly cream (mmm... Yummy).


(My hair looks like Vatel's hair XD)

Well, I'm going to try to make this story a little more entertaining ;)... By the way, I want to apologize for my english, I really hope to improve it! ;)

In 1631, Paris saw the birth of who was known as "the Great Vatel". Our friend Vatel ventured into culinary arts motivated to escape from his own reality, being from a family with few resources, he began working at 15 years old as a pastry apprentice.

When Vatel already had a vast experience in the pastry area, he was hire by Nicolas Fouquet, who named him maestresala ... so, he must be head chef and at the same time master of ceremonies. (What a work, isn't it?).

The first work that consolidated the fame of Vatel was the inauguration party of Fouquet palace, where was invited the ¨crème de la crème¨ (King Louis XIV, his mother Anne of Austria and all the important figures of the French court). In simple words, the inauguration was a ceremony with an incredible banquet that had more than 80 different recipes (:O).


(this man looks so snob XD... ¨crème de la crème¨)

However, the French political life of those years was very ...well, it was very complex XD * ... and Fouquet was arrested for embezzlement, sentenced to exile and to life imprisonment :O.

In the meantime our poor friend Vatel goes into exile in England and he was hired by Louis II of Bourbon-Condé "Prince Condé".

Then, by 1663 our not so poor friend Vatel start works in Chantilly palace (as you can see the cream has the same name :D), at this point François Vatel was recognized for his incredible work a talent.


(Chantilli palace :D)

But, not everything that shines is gold and due to the plots and political intrigues of the time, Prince Condé fell into disgrace before the eyes of the king and to try to amend this situation, decided to invited the king and the entire court of Versailles to a party in their honor. This party would go down in the history of gastronomy as "The party of three days".

Vatel organized by himself the entire banquet, in a period of 15 days. But, for the misfortune of Vatel who was a perfectionist (maybe he had OCT), the last day of the banquet the fish required for the marine preparations had a delay! ... Vatel couldn’t deal with this mishap and he decided to take his own life, sticking a dagger in his chest ... :(

minutes after this tragedy was announced the arrival of the supplier with the fishes. :O

Interesting story, right?

On the other hand, there is another theory about the suicide of this great cook, and it says that he committed suicide by a lack of love, however, as a cook I prefer to keep the story that Vatel took his own life to avoid seeing his prestige stained ;).

I hope you liked this post!

Kisses!

PS: I leave you a phrase that I love and I always remember when I think about this great cook

"These violent delights have violent ends". William Shakespeare

Oh! I almost forgot, below I leave the bibliographical references ;)

http://www.elgranporque.com/por-que-existe-la-crema-chantilly/
http://www.lne.es/asturama/2013/03/27/maitre-apuros/1388891.html
http://www.laalcazaba.org/francois-vatel-una-leyenda-en-la-cocina-por-jose-manuel-mojica/
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSuYst_0rnVmP1Eko-TtcnFTFoPiOEiaDzXFyXx-VdHFINIRYiD
http://gastronomadasmx.com/historia-de-francois-vatel-creador-de-la-crema-chantilly/