Andrea Cast reviews Barbara Santich’s Seminar
Icecream on Sunday: Food in Eighteenth-Century Provence
When the Paris chapter of the American Institute of Wine and Food awarded Adelaide food historian
Barbara Santich a research grant she chose to spend it investigating the archives in Avignon.
She only had three weeks and did not really know what she would find.
Luckily Barbara came across the intact and detailed accounts of a well off Provençal family for the years 1772-1773.
She is using these records to investigate the origins of Provençal cuisine.
With no known cookbooks for the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to help her, she has managed to tease
from the household accounts evidence of what the household could have eaten.
For instance an incidental account of an ice purchase coincides with accounts for fixing
the ice house and a purchase of six ice-cream containers.
When coupled with the cultural tradition of reserving special treats for Sunday meals,
these accounts mean the family probably did have ice-cream on Sundays.
Through this sort of analysis Barbara hopes to show the beginning of a distinct regional cuisine,
beyond medieval cookery and unlike the dishes of northern France.
Barbara's paper served as more than an example of Provençal cuisine.
She demonstrated how the financial accounts of a family kitchen could contribute to our understanding of the culture of food.
Her concluding analysis of change and continuity in eighteenth century Provençal cuisine was particularly enlightening.
Barbara discussed what foods and spices were available in France but missing in the household accounts;
she also analysed the expansion in the range of sweet dishes and therefore the use of sugar.
Such information is important for the study of cultural change, of the economic impact of New World crops, and of food history.
Barbara's style also captivated the cultural tourist in all of us; her paper was enlightening as well as entertaining.
The variety of food described whetted the appetites of her audience.
After her paper the audience were treated to two eighteenth-century dishes prepared by Barbara and Cheong Liew.
They were served with a wines provided by the Research Centre.
Satiated with food for thought and food for the stomach, a good time was had by all.
Andrea Cast is one of the Research Centre's postgraduates in the Department of History at the University of Adelaide.
She is writing a PhD dissertation on women and alcohol in early modern England.
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