La première Carte gastronomique de la France (1809) : origines, auteurs, interprétations

Abstract

La Carte gastronomique de la France, the gastronomic map of France, was engraved during the First Empire to illustrate a book entitled Cours gastronomique ou les dîners de Manant-Ville written by Charles-Louis Cadet de Gassicourt as part of the publications of the ‘Société épicurienne du caveau moderne’. This group sought to place for the first time on a territorial representation pictograms that refer to the objects of their own culinary knowledge and pleasures. Some pictograms are intriguing, even though the representation would invite us to inventory these riches and a list published in the Cours gastronomique (which we publish in the appendix) helps us to read the map. The present article attempts to analyze the status of this document, based on its cartographic and aesthetic qualities, then going on to investigate its gestation and to determine its symbolic, technical and heritage significance.

Keywords

• Paris
• geography
• First Empire
• gastronomy
• cuisine
• maps