Jean de La Fontaine at the table

At the table of the Grand Siècle, dishes are not served one after another but all at once, arranged symmetrically on the damask cloth. Each guest helps themselves to what is within reach. The meal is organized into several successive "services" (soups and entrées, then roasts and entremets, finally fruits and preserves), each completely covering the table before the settings are changed.

French cuisine of the 17th century, codified by La Varenne in *Le Cuisinier françois* (1651), abandoned the heavy spices of the Middle Ages for butter-based liaisons, clear broths, and bouquets of fresh herbs (parsley, spring onion, thyme, tarragon). This was the birth of the "modern" taste that La Fontaine knew at the tables of Fouquet and Madame de La Sablière.