In Reims, meals are not served in a "starter-main course-dessert" order but according to the Church calendar. On lean days (Fridays, vigils, Lent, Advent), abstinence from meat is required: vegetable soups, river fish, bread, and cheese are eaten. On fat days and at banquets for kings, bishops, and great vassals, several successive "dishes" are served — roasted meats, game, pungent sauces — accompanied by wine from the Montagne de Reims. Everything begins and ends with blessed bread and wine, the heart of the Christian table.

The Reims hillside already produced a clear, light wine, the pride of the archbishopric; it was spiced for feasts. Verjuice (juice of sour green grapes) was used everywhere as a sour touch, where we would use lemon — a fruit then unknown in Champagne.