At the table of a late-18th-century Parisian bourgeois, dishes were not served one after another but in great waves covering the entire table: a first service of soups and entrees, a second of roasts and main pieces, then dessert (fruits, biscuits, sweet wines). Each guest served themselves from what was within reach. Danton, son of Arcis-sur-Aube in Champagne, retained a taste for the honest foods of his province even amid Parisian splendor.

More than an ingredient, it is Danton's hallmark: born in the heart of Champagne, he kept its table — clear wines, marc, soaked biscuits, and pork cooked in the style of Sainte-Menehould, a famous Champagne town known for its pig's trotters.