Page 130 - Livre Beau Rivage Palace

CATERING AND THE ART diners to sit crammed together, with a complete lack of privacy
OF THE TABLE IN THE LUXURY HOTEL
IN THE NINETEENTH
AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES
Marc de FERRIÈRE LE VAYER
Food has always played an important role in the luxury hotel and developed during the second half. The same can be said of
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business. From the mid-1800s onwards, both business travellers their catering facilities.
and holidaymakers staying at a deluxe establishment would have The first large deluxe hotels appeared at a turning point in
wanted not only to sleep but also to eat there. history and were, to some degree, to epitomise the many lifestyle
Later in the nineteenth century, as the luxury sector expanded changes taking place at the time. From this point of view they
and became more and more competitive, the hotel restaurant and symbolised the beginning of a way of life often referred to as ‘the
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the quality of service and excellence of food it provided became a French way’ but which was, in reality, much more ‘European’. These
key element in trying to attract guests to deluxe hotels – what today changes occurred simultaneously in a number of different spheres.
would be called a loss-leader. Immediately after the First World War, Luxury hotels and their restaurants provided the perfect example
the situation changed. Even greater changes were to follow in the of these parallel developments and also set the pattern for a way of
1950s and 60s. When it came to the preparation and presentation of life that would endure for several generations.
food, luxury hotels rarely figured among the gastronomic greats of The birth of the restaurant – when it actually took place is still
the period. It was not until the 1980s that hotel restaurants started a bone of contention among historians – dates back to the end of
to achieve the same standards as the rest of the hotel’s services and the ancien régime and the time of the French Revolution. There is
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to receive praise from the restaurant guides. no disputing that it all began in Paris, which in this respect provided
Given the importance of food and its presentation in the the model for Europe, indeed for the whole world. Although it
operation of a luxury hotel, it is interesting to explore how catering happened more than half a century before luxury hotels became
has changed and evolved over the years. The transformations seen in widespread, this revolution in the way people ate away from home
the great hotels have mirrored the changes taking place in society. was to have a direct impact on later developments. The advent of
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the restaurant was, in part, a response to several needs.
HOTEL CATERING IN THE EARLY DAYS The first, and certainly the most important, was the need
Luxury hotels have not existed since time immemorial. They for travellers to be able to find acceptable places to eat, in other
first came into being during the first half of the nineteenth century words establishments that did not offer dreadful food or expect
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development since it meant that from then on dishes would be
that posed problems for foreign visitors and women in general. brought to a table in the order in which they were consumed, an
The fact that they were obliged to sit next to strangers and, in the ideal arrangement for restaurants.
But what have these events to do with the luxury hotel
case of the women, next to all kinds of men, made such places business which did not start until half a century later? The answer
strictly off-limits.
A second need arose out of dramatic changes occurring in
society in the wake of the political and social shifts of the late is simple. Luxury hotels and their restaurants somehow brought
together and adopted these new ideas and became the perfect
eighteenth century. These created a clientele eager to savour fine working example of the combination of new table etiquette,
cuisine but lacking the means to have such food prepared at home. new cuisine and a new style of service. The main reason for this
This is one of the explanations for the success of the great chefs development was that deluxe hotels were built with the intention
who set up in Paris after Antoine Beauvilliers opened his Grande of offering quality accommodation to guests, many of whom came
Taverne de Londres. 5 from abroad and had often travelled very long distances by sea.
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Other great chefs who were to become famous were the The shipping companies were created in the years 1840-50, at the
Provenceaux brothers and Véfour, as well as caterers like Sylvain same time as the first luxury hotels. They were followed by similar
Bailly, whose apprentices included the man responsible for companies providing travel by train, such as Pullman, Wagons-lits,
starting a culinary revolution, Antonin Carême. He and the etc. Together, the shipping and rail operators and the grand hotels
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young chefs who came after him introduced what they called responded to the growth in business travel and tourism that came
‘nouvelle cuisine’. Its main feature was its rejection of the practices with the Industrial Revolution. This was the age that saw the
of seventeenth-century cuisine, especially the heavy use of invention of the notion of ‘going to the seaside’, when health spas
spices and complex blends of ingredients. It coincided with the were all the rage and great exhibitions were staged. 9
birth of the art of gastronomy, whose two leading advocates Millions of travellers were making their way across the
were Grimod de la Reynière – author of a book on the subject world, often spending long periods away from home. The Great
entitled Manuel des Amphitryons and host of gourmet dinners at Exhibition of 1851 in London attracted more than six million
the Rocher de Cancale restaurant in Paris – and Brillat Savarin, visitors in six months, while that in Paris in 1867 drew more than
famous for his Physiology of Taste. 7 11 million. There was clearly a need to open enormous, palatial
This new culinary style later formed the basis of what came to hotels, like ocean liners built of stone in city centres. Among them
be known as cuisine bourgeoise – good, plain cooking which would were Paris’s Hôtel du Louvre opened in 1855, followed by the
gradually become the norm in every well-managed household Grand Hotel in 1867. 10
and every restaurant. When we think of a luxury hotel, we think room, reception
Around the same time, table manners and the way food was and services. But that is not the whole story. Luxury hotels also serve
presented also underwent a major change as a direct result of food. And it is at this point that we return to the changes brought
the new cuisine. One of the active promoters of the new dining about by the French Revolution. Like all pioneers, these new-
etiquette was none other than Antonin Carême who discovered style establishments had to invent everything as they went along.
‘service à la russe’, or service in the Russian style, when he prepared This was particularly true of the catering side. There appeared to
meals for the Csar while employed by Talleyrand, the great French be two options open – a restaurant of the type that had gradually
statesman and lover of good food. This was truly a revolutionary taken hold in Paris, or the old-fashioned table d’hôte system, where
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