In the eighteenth-century French household, the servant cook held a special place of importance, providing daily meals and managing the kitchen and its finances. In this scrupulously researched and witty history, Sean Takats examines the lives of these cooks as they sought to improve their position in society and reinvent themselves as expert, skilled professionals. Much has been written about the cuisine of the period, but Takats takes readers down into the kitchen and introduces them to the men and women behind the food. It is only then, Takats argues, that we can fully recover the scientific and cultural significance of the meals they created, and, more importantly, the contributions of ordinary workers to eighteenth-century intellectual life. He shows how cooks, along with decorators, architects, and fashion merchants, drove France's consumer revolution, and how cooks' knowledge about a healthy diet and the medicinal properties of food advanced their professional status by capitalizing on the Enlightenment's new concern for bodily and material happiness. The Expert Cook in Enlightenment France explores a unique intersection of cultural history, labor history, and the history of science and medicine. Relying on an unprecedented range of sources, from printed cookbooks and medical texts to building plans and commercial advertisements, Takats reconstructs the evolving role of the cook in Enlightenment France. Academics and students alike will enjoy this fascinating study of the invention of the professional chef, of how ordinary workers influenced emerging trends of scientific knowledge, culture-creation, and taste in eighteenth-century France.

About the Author
Sean Takats is an assistant professor of history at George Mason University.

Reviews
Scrupulously researched and witty history... Academics and students alike will enjoy this fascinating study of the invention of the professional chef, of how ordinary workers influenced emerging trends of scientific knowledge, culture-creation, and taste in eighteenth-century France. Goodreads.com The Expert Cook in Enlightenment France will interest scholars and lay people alike, those with a passion for the history of cuisine, especially the labor and other tasks that went into the preparation of food and the creation of a profession. -- Cynthia Bertelsen New York Journal of Books The Expert Cook in Enlightenment France by Sean Takats fills a much needed gap in 18th century France...A concise and informative overview on cooks, their work, their precarious role in a society and how they hoped to strengthen that role through cooking during the Enlightenment... I definitely recommend it for 18th century libraries, French studies libraries, and anyone particularly interested in the role of cooks during the 18th century. -- Anna Amber vivelaqueen Fascinating and unique historical portrayal, thoroughly accessible to lay gourmands and scholars alike. -- James A. Cox Midwest Book Review The Expert Cook vividly demonstrates how and why servant cooks, in propelling the gustatory desires of their masters toward perfection, became active participants in the Enlightenment and brought French cooking into the modern age. -- Sydney Watts American Historical Review The Enlightenment is a period in European history characterized by the use of reason to impose order on human knowledge with the objective of advancing humankind's progress and material happiness. Generally, the intelligentsia, most notably the French philosophes, led this endeavor. In this well-researched study of the period, however, Takats highlights the role of the domestic servant, the cook, in systematizing knowledge and advancing French culture. Choice



Book Information
ISBN 9781421402833
Author Sean Takats
Format Hardback
Page Count 216
Imprint Johns Hopkins University Press
Publisher Johns Hopkins University Press
Weight(grams) 431g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 18mm