Olympe de Gouges at the table

In 18th-century Paris, meals were not served in the modern 'starter-main-dessert' order but in courses placed all at once on the table. One began with soup, followed by entrées and the 'relevé' (meats in sauce), then entremets (often sweet or creamy); fruits and preserves closed the meal. Off the table, coffee drunk at the Palais-Royal became the social and political ritual of the Revolution. For a woman of letters of modest means like Olympe de Gouges, these courses remained simple but careful, paced by the city's shortages.

Long before lemons became common, Ancien Régime French cuisine acidified its sauces with verjuice (juice of unripe grapes) and perfumed them with fine herbs from the kitchen garden — parsley, chervil, spring onion, tarragon. This is the discreet but omnipresent signature of the Parisian table in Olympe's time.