Among the great Franks, dishes are not served one after another as they are today: everything arrives together around the great fire of the hall. Bread serves as a base and sometimes as a plate (the trencher), spit-roasted meats reign in the center, and each person serves themselves with the point of their knife. Ale and wine flow abundantly, a sign of the master's generosity. The meal is an act of power as much as nourishment: feeding one's followers binds their loyalty.

Frankish cuisine has neither abundant rare spices nor sugar: it is the honey of the forests that sweetens and glazes meats, and the great spit turned above the open hearth that makes the feast. Game, honey, and smoke: that is the trinity of the aristocratic table of Austrasia.