A look at Cinderella Through Food

The story of Cinderella is set roughly in late 17th century France. The sad look at a young rich girl who suffers the death of her mother and ends up becoming the kitchen maid in her new step mothers house. A closer look at the cuisine of that time showed me a couple of things.

Fun Facts

• The first is that the 17th century saw the advancement of haute cuisine or high cuisine. A focus on ingredients and quality of food became more important then an abundance of food. There’s a record of a banquet held by Catherine De Medici that put somewhere near 66 roast birds on the table.
• Catherine brought Florentine chefs to France and with them they brought not only technique the French cooks had not seen, but also the use of forks as a utensil. The Italians had been doing it for many years prior, but the French thought it was a silly way to eat.
• This time also saw the publishing of La Varenne’s cookbook “Le Cuisinier Francois”. This is credited as the first truly french cookbook.
• We also see a book published by Francois Massialot called “Le Cuisinier roial et bourgeois” that saw the first recipe for marinade in print in 1691.
• A look at what the peasants of the time were eating told me they were eating seasonally and preserving what vegetables they could for the off season. Also if they were lucky to own a piece of land large enough to hold a cow on they had access to milk and cheese. The meat they butchered and ate was salted and cured to preserve it.

Making The Menu

What I would like to accomplish with the Cinderella inspired menu is something that starts off light and quick and moves into a heavier sit down meal. I want to try and bring the theme of high cuisine into a home cook kitchen in a way that teaches something about French cuisine without being intimidating. Which means I as a fellow home cook have to find some way to make it less intimidating first.

Breakfast will look something like a savory filled pastry or light egg dish. Then show case a couple different salad and sandwich options for lunch. I want to make them not only home cook friendly but family friendly. After that I want a heartier but still beautifully plated dinner. Something with fresh veg and a deliciously cooked protein. Possibly a chicken roulade of sorts. Something with cheese because who other then my seven year doesn’t like cheese?

Then a light dessert. The first chantilly cream was whipped into existence right about this time so possibly a cream puff. I had never made them until recently and was pleasantly surprised at how easy the whole process is. We can then turn that same dough we would use for that cream puff and make it into a savory cheesy snack. Something that could’ve been served at the ball where Cinderella wooed the prince for the first time.

We will do some Recipe Labs here in the Bottomless Chips kitchen and see what we can come up with. Successful recipes will be posted and I will definitely share what I learned from the failures as well. Every cooking experience teaches us something whether we succeed or not.