• Director(s):

    ALLES (CHANTAL)

  • Producer(s):

    ARTE FRANCE, 2P2L

  • Territories:

    Worldwide.

  • Production year:

    2013

  • Language(s):

    German, French

  • Rights:

    TV, DVD, NON-THEATRICAL, INTERNET, VOD

Chef Guy Martin, of the renowned restaurant Le Grand Véfour, chooses a canvas painted in 1863 (the same year as Manet’s controversial The Luncheon on the Grass) to illustrate a royal meal. Jean-Léon Gérôme was a late 19th century artist who painted in the style of Academicism. 

It is one of very few depictions of Louis 14th at table, and – a paradox of history - the canvas was painted nearly two centuries after he reigned, and decorates the walls of an obscure municipal library in Boston! Guy Martin, helped by the expertise of Béatrix Saule, curator of the Museum of Versailles, serves his guests a dish worthy of a king. For the occasion, these guests have brought along their best produce related to the culinary customs of the time: young pigeon accompanied by a risotto of button mushrooms and vegetables from the king’s vegetable garden in Versailles. They end with the cream of desserts: a mille-feuille, an innovation of the time, dating back to when sugar first appeared in the king’s kitchens.