Joachim du Bellay at the table

At the table of a 16th-century scholar or cardinal, the meal is not arranged as starter-main-dessert but in successive courses brought all at once and set on the tablecloth: the *potage* (broths and saucy dishes), the *rost* (roasted meats and fish), the *entremets* (pies, sweet-savory dishes, and showpieces), then the *issue de table* (preserves, dragées, spiced wine) which closes and 'seals' the stomach. Sweet and savory mingle without boundary, and spices signal the host's rank.

Verjus — the acidic juice of unripe green grapes — is the sour soul of 16th-century French cuisine, where the South would use lemon. It is paired with 'sweet spices' (cinnamon, ginger, clove) and sugar, then a luxury product, for that sweet-sour-spiced balance that characterizes humanist tables, from Du Bellay's Anjou to Roman palaces.