Madame de Sévigné at the table

At the aristocratic table of the Grand Siècle, dishes were not served one after another but in grand "services" where everything arrived at once, arranged symmetrically on the tablecloth. The meal opened with the service of soups and entrées, followed by the roast (meats and game cooked on the spit), and finally the entremets and fruit (sweets, jams, creams). Each guest helped themselves to whatever was within reach—hence rank determined who got the best pieces.

The 17th century invented "modern" cuisine: the medieval flood of spices was abandoned for fresh butter, fine herbs (chervil, spring onion, parsley), and reductions. This was the revolution of La Varenne, whose *Le Cuisinier françois* (1651) reigned in every kitchen of the great houses that Madame de Sévigné frequented.