Thème : Écriture Gastronomique
Héritage dans la presse post Seconde Guerre Mondiale
Speaker - Matthieu AUSSUDRE
A paper on the legacy of Grimod de la Reynière and Brillat-Savarin in the food press following World War II. While Grimod de la Reynière’s influence is well established - Le Monde newspaper critic Robert Courtine even adopted the nickname “La Reynière”—Brillat-Savarin’s influence is more open to question. Did the arrival of Gault & Millau reshuffle the deck? What legacy remains today? Are they still points of reference for contemporary food journalism?
Thème : Société
Women in Culinary Discourse
Intervenante - Julia Csergo
Grimod, Brillat, and Women: What place did women hold in their lives? What roles did they play? What kind of relationship did each of them have with women? What is the difference between the era (or eras) of Grimod and Brillat and today?
Thème : Balzac
Balzac's Perspective: The Influence of Both in *La Comédie humaine*
Intervenant - Yves Gagneux
Both Grimod and Brillat-Savarin are mentioned in La Comédie humaine, which attests to the author’s familiarity with their works. Brillat’s evident ambition to offer a comprehensive analysis of a human phenomenon in a scientific form clearly appealed to Balzac. Grimod’s influence, though more subtle, takes on other forms. Balzac, an archaeologist of urban life, could not help but be drawn to the vibrant energy that emanates from Grimod’s writings. The influence of each in La Comédie humaine is thus expressed differently, offering us a unique lens through which to discover them.
Thème : Relation Gastronome - chef
Créateurs de tendances : deux siècles de gastronomes français et de chefs célèbres
Intervenant - Michael GARVAL
In the aftermath of the French Revolution, pioneering food critics such as Grimod de la Reynière and Brillat-Savarin, as well as the first famous chefs like Carême, emerged as a new category of public figures. As key players in the rise and democratization of gastronomy, chefs and food connoisseurs asserted their influence as arbiters of taste, but literary prestige gave writers the upper hand. Over the past two centuries, amid a rapidly changing culinary, cultural, and media landscape, the balance of power within this relationship—both symbiotic and conflictual—has shifted, with chefs now establishing themselves as trendsetters.
Thème : Convivialité
The Art of Dining According to Grimod and Brillat
Speaker - Chikako HASHIMOTO
The Transformation of the Concept of Post-Revolutionary Conviviality: The Influence of Grimod and Brillat on the Evolution of Interpersonal Relationships at the Table.
Thème : Art et Science
Gastronomy: Is it more of an art or a science?
Speaker - Christophe LAVELLE
Gastronomy: Is It More of an Art or a Science? This question lies at the heart of the debate between Brillat-Savarin and La Reynière, for while the former elevates the love of good food to the status of a philosophical and physiological science (gastronomy, that “reasoned knowledge of everything related to man insofar as he nourishes himself”), the latter focuses his discourse primarily on aesthetic judgment. In fact, straddling the lines between art and science, nature and culture, ingredients and techniques, cuisine transcends these dichotomies to evolve at the intersection of food and emotion—in constant interaction—for the well-being of both body and mind. To what extent or in what proportion?
Thème : Cinéma
The Figure of the Gourmet in World Cinema
Speaker - Fabio PARASECOLI
How the identity of the gourmet has changed since Brillat and Grimod, and how it is portrayed in contemporary food media, especially on social media.
Thème : L'importance des mots
Friand, Gourmet, Coteau... Gastronomes Before the Term Existed, or Friand, Gourmet, Coteau, and the Construction of the Figure of the Gastronome (Late Middle Ages to Early 19th Century)
Intervenant - Florent Quellier
The pre-gastronomic lexicon, or how to refer to a lover of good food before the term “gastronom” came into use, particularly through the figures of the “friand,” the “gourmet,” and the “coteau.” Grimod and Brillat are also heirs to this lexicon, and understanding the meaning of “gastronome” requires placing the noun within this context.
Thème : Histoire des idées
The Concept of Gastronomy: Or, How Culinary Discourse Becomes Gastronomy
Speaker - Patrick RAMBOURG
“The Idea of Gastronomy: Or How Culinary Discourse Becomes Gastronomy.” While the word “gastronomy” came into widespread use in the early decades of the 19th century—thanks, among other things, to the writings of Berchoux, Grimod de la Reynière, and Brillat-Savarin—the idea of gastronomy itself is much older than is generally believed. As early as the late Middle Ages—and even long before that—accounts of cooking and dining began to appear. Its evolution is part of the rise of haute cuisine in France beginning in the Grand Siècle, the culinary debates of the Enlightenment, and the subsequent publication of works such as the Almanach des gourmands and The Physiology of Taste.
Thème : Le goût
Institutionalizing Taste: The Metamorphoses of the Almanach des gourmands
Speaker - Yuka SAITO
Following the success of the first year of the Almanach des Gourmands, Grimod de La Reynière transformed his culinary publication into a true authority on food criticism by establishing the Tasting Jury. Over the course of its eight issues, the almanac redefined itself through interaction with its readers and food merchants, becoming one of the cornerstones of 19th-century gastronomic literature, a tradition that also includes The Physiology of Taste.
This presentation will analyze the origins of this unique form of legitimization and the work’s transformations, drawing in particular on a corpus of previously unpublished correspondence by the author.
Thème : Écriture Gastronomique
Satire, Structure, and Flavors: How Grimod’s Almanac Shaped Modern Gastronomic Writing
Speaker - Max SHREM
This essay reinterprets the Almanach des Gourmands as one of the earliest experimental spaces for culinary journalism.
Its three-part structure—a nutritional calendar, a guide to suppliers, and satirical “Varieties”—creates a space where taste becomes a public practice and a performative text. Under the guise of an elderly amateur, Grimod both asserts and subverts his authority, employing parody and pseudo-scholarly classification to educate the reader. At the intersection of print culture, mediatized taste, and self-presentation, the
Almanach inaugurates a critical framework that foreshadows modern food criticism and contemporary logics of influence.
Thème : Culture & Patrimoine
The Contrasting Fortunes of Grimod and Brillat in Gastronomic Tradition
Speaker - Jean-Claude Bonnet
Jean-Claude Bonnet will explore the persistent references to Brillat and Grimod during those distant years when gastronomy had not yet emerged as a legitimate field of knowledge. He will focus in particular on Roland Barthes while sharing his personal account of that era, when gastronomy began to be fully recognized as a cultural element in its own right and as a jewel of French national culture.
