In the Parisian bourgeoisie of the Enlightenment, meals were not served as starter-main-dessert but in courses: all dishes of the same course were placed on the table together, and each person helped themselves to what was within reach. The midday dinner began with soups and entrées, continued with the roast and entremets, and ended with a dessert of fruits and sweets. The lighter evening supper followed the same logic in miniature: cold meat, cheese, a sweet, and a glass of homemade liqueur.

Pounded in a mortar and passed through a sieve, the almond was the chameleon ingredient of the refined 18th-century table: it thickened *potages à la Reine*, set into a milky jelly in blancmange, and perfumed sweets. Discreet, elegant, a little precious—like a portraitist's workshop.