Page 131 - Livre Beau Rivage Palace
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CATERING AND THE ART  diners to sit crammed together, with a complete lack of privacy   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
 OF THE TABLE IN THE LUXURY HOTEL  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
 IN THE NINETEENTH  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
 AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES  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.
                                                                                                                               8
 Marc de FERRIÈRE LE VAYER
                      Other great chefs who were to become famous were the   The shipping companies were created in the years 1840-50, at the
 Food has always played an important role in the luxury hotel   and developed during the second half.  The same can be said of   Provenceaux brothers and Véfour, as well as caterers like Sylvain   same time as the first luxury hotels. They were followed by similar
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 business. From the mid-1800s onwards, both business travellers   their catering facilities.  Bailly, whose apprentices included the man responsible for   companies providing travel by train, such as Pullman, Wagons-lits,
 and holidaymakers staying at a deluxe establishment would have   The first large deluxe hotels appeared at a turning point in   starting  a  culinary  revolution, Antonin  Carême.   He  and the   etc. Together, the shipping and rail operators and the grand hotels
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 wanted not only to sleep but also to eat there.  history and were, to some degree, to epitomise the many lifestyle   young chefs who came after him introduced what they called   responded to the growth in business travel and tourism that came
 Later in the nineteenth century, as the luxury sector expanded   changes taking place at the time. From this point of view they   ‘nouvelle cuisine’. Its main feature was its rejection of the practices   with the Industrial Revolution. This was the age that saw the
 and became more and more competitive, the hotel restaurant and   symbolised the beginning of a way of life often referred to as ‘the   of seventeenth-century cuisine, especially the heavy use of   invention of the notion of ‘going to the seaside’, when health spas
 the quality of service and excellence of food it provided became a   French way’ but which was, in reality, much more ‘European’.  These   spices and complex blends of ingredients. It coincided with the   were all the rage and great exhibitions were staged. 9
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 key element in trying to attract guests to deluxe hotels – what today   changes occurred simultaneously in a number of different spheres.   birth of the art of gastronomy, whose two leading advocates   Millions of travellers were making their way across the
 would be called a loss-leader. Immediately after the First World War,  Luxury hotels and their restaurants provided the perfect example   were Grimod de la Reynière – author of a book on the subject   world, often spending long periods away from home. The Great
 the situation changed. Even greater changes were to follow in the   of these parallel developments and also set the pattern for a way of   entitled Manuel des Amphitryons and host of gourmet dinners at   Exhibition of 1851 in London attracted more than six million
 1950s and 60s. When it came to the preparation and presentation of   life that would endure for several generations.  the Rocher de Cancale restaurant in Paris – and Brillat Savarin,  visitors in six months, while that in Paris in 1867 drew more than
 food, luxury hotels rarely figured among the gastronomic greats of   The birth of the restaurant – when it actually took place is still   famous for his Physiology of Taste. 7  11 million. There was clearly a need to open enormous, palatial
 the period. It was not until the 1980s that hotel restaurants started   a bone of contention among historians – dates back to the end of   This new culinary style later formed the basis of what came to   hotels, like ocean liners built of stone in city centres. Among them
 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   be known as cuisine bourgeoise – good, plain cooking which would   were Paris’s Hôtel du Louvre opened in 1855, followed by the
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 to receive praise from the restaurant guides.  no disputing that it all began in Paris, which in this respect provided   gradually become the norm in every well-managed household   Grand Hotel in 1867. 10
 Given the importance of food and its presentation in the   the model for Europe, indeed for the whole world. Although it   and every restaurant.  When we think of a luxury hotel, we think room, reception
 operation of a luxury hotel, it is interesting to explore how catering   happened more than half a century before luxury hotels became   Around the same time, table manners and the way food was   and services. But that is not the whole story. Luxury hotels also serve
 has changed and evolved over the years. The transformations seen in   widespread, this revolution in the way people ate away from home   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 great hotels have mirrored the changes taking place in society.  was to have a direct impact on later developments.  The advent of   the new cuisine. One of the active promoters of the new dining   about by the French Revolution. Like all pioneers, these new-
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 the restaurant was, in part, a response to several needs.  etiquette was none other than Antonin Carême who discovered   style establishments had to invent everything as they went along.
 HOTEL CATERING IN THE EARLY DAYS   The first, and certainly the most important, was the need   ‘service à la russe’, or service in the Russian style, when he prepared   This was particularly true of the catering side. There appeared to
 Luxury hotels have not existed since time immemorial. They   for travellers to be able to find acceptable places to eat, in other   meals for the Csar while employed by Talleyrand, the great French   be two options open – a restaurant of the type that had gradually
 first came into being during the first half of the nineteenth century   words establishments that did not offer dreadful food or expect   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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