Call for Papers: Gourmand vs. Gourmet. Art and Culture of Fine Dining in Europe

Deadline: 11/15/2026

The opposition between the figure of the gourmand and that of the gourmet has played out in the West since Antiquity. Today, the gourmand, the bon vivant, is associated with greed and excess; moderation, refinement and discernment fall to the gourmet. Let us clarify the terminology. Florent Quellier has shown that gluttony, over the course of its history, encompasses the glutton, the gourmand and the gastronome. In the Middle Ages, the Latin word gula covers the notion of eating abundantly and with delight, but for the Christian Church, it is a vice classed as a deadly sin. In French, the word "gourmandise" is confused with gluttony from the 15th to the 18th century. The term "gourmet", first associated with wine, took hold in the modern era in European languages to combine restraint in taste with good manners. Then, at the beginning of the 19th century, the words "gastronomy / gastronome" ennobled the notion of gourmandise by appropriating it. While the French model of gastronomy (initiated by Brillat-Savarin and Grimod de La Reynière) removes the pejorative connotation from gourmandise, Christian morality still defines it as a guilty pleasure.

Louise Moillon, The Fruit and Vegetable Seller, 1630, Paris, Louvre Museum

The issue

For these meetings, we chose instead the term "gourmet" because, beyond the "gastronome" who enjoys fine dining, the gourmet seeks out exquisite food and wine as a connoisseur; they regard the meal as a distinguished artistic and social experience. Moreover, "gourmet" and "gourmand" both raise an issue of gender and lexicon. Not only is a predilection for sweet tastes traditionally associated with children and the female sex, but the label "gourmande" carries a sexual connotation. In French, the nonexistence of the noun "gourmette" points to the erasure of women in the world of gastronomy.

The meetings offered by IESA address the way the "gourmand - gourmet" ambivalence has been described, decried or praised over the centuries in the arts in the broad sense: the arts of the table, the figurative arts (fine arts, photography, film), as well as in literature, theater, poetry and music.

Some possible themes

  1. Conviviality: table manners; savoir-vivre; sensoriality; tasting clubs; gastronomic travels; social distinction
  2. Religion: prescriptions, prohibitions, fasting, lean/fat days, controversies; monastic gluttony; convent recipes
  3. Politics: diplomacy of taste; cuisine of rulers; practices; influences of princely courts: banquets, cuisine, recipes, kitchen garden; environment; ecology
  4. Gender: the place of Epicurean women; lexical evolution/gaps; eroticism; objectification; gendered models; acts of resistance; preparation; consumption of food
  5. Colonization: products of the New World; exoticisms; acculturation; appropriation; racial differences

This overview, rooted in French culture, can of course open onto other horizons.
We invite you to approach the "gourmand/gourmet" duality in a more cosmopolitan way. The final areas of focus will be determined according to the contributions selected.

Multimedia Meetings

Beyond the talks, you will have the opportunity to set tables, take part in tasting workshops, and attend a concert and theatrical readings. These gatherings aim to delight the mind, the palate, and all five senses!

How to Apply?

Following the bibliography below, you will find a brief historical overview and potential topics focused on French culture, some ready to use, others for inspiration.

Comparative proposals from outside the European context are welcome. The languages of these meetings are French or English, for presentations lasting 20 minutes. We cannot cover transportation costs, but meals, coffee breaks and workshops are covered, as well as the hotel (2-3 nights) for non-Parisians.

Proposals for papers must include:

  • title
  • abstract of 700 words maximum (one page, single-spaced)
  • short bio-bibliography

They must be sent before Sunday, November 15, 2026 to:

David Brouzet: d.brouzet@iesa.fr and Pascale Rihouet: p.rihouet@iesa.fr

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

Frédérique Desbuisson, Université de Reims

Valérie Boudier, Université de Lille

Matthieu da Vinha, Research Center of the Château de Versailles

David Brouzet, IESA arts&culture and École du Louvre

Pascale Rihouet, IESA arts&culture and Rhode Island School of Design

David Mandrella, IESA arts&culture

Christophe Brouard, director of the Soissons museums

BIBLIOGRAPHIE indicative / preliminary BIBLIOGRAPHY

To the Table! The Meal. Quite an Art! Sèvres, Musée national de Céramique, exh. cat., Montreuil, Gourcuff Gradenico / Limoges, Musée national Dubouché, 2020.

L’Art de manger. Rites et traditions en Afrique, Insulinde et Océanie, exh. cat., Paris, musée Dapper, 2014.

Boudier, Valérie. The Painter’s Kitchen. Genre Scenes and Food in the Cinquecento, Tours, Presses universitaires François-Rabelais, 2010.

Brillat-Savarin, Jean-Anthelme. Physiologie du goût, annotated by Pascal Ory, Paris, Menu Fretin, 2026 [1826].

Coron, Sophie (ed.). Livres en bouche. Cinq siècles d’art culinaire français, exh. cat., Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France / Hermann, 2001.

Deckert, Gilles. Plaisirs et jeux de pouvoir. Le banquet de Marseille à Rome. Marseille, MAM (Musée d’archéologie méditerranéenne), exh. cat., 2016, Paris, Lienart, 2016.

Elias, Norbert. The Civilizing Process, revised ed., Oxford, Blackwell’s, 2000 [1939].

Gagneux, Yves. The Glutton, the Gourmand, and the Gastronome. The Pleasures of the Table from Balzac to Yourcenar, Paris, Vendémiaire, 2020.

Gourarier, Zeev. The Tables of Power. A History of Prestige Meals, exh. cat., Louvre-Lens Museum, Paris, National Museums Union, 2021.

Grimod de La Reynière, Alexandre. Gastronomic Writings [Almanac of Gourmands, 1803 / Handbook of Hosts, 1808], Paris, Belles Lettres Press, 2024.

Hashimoto, Chikako. The Birth of the Gourmand. Grimod de La Reynière and the French Revolution, Tours, Presses universitaires François-Rabelais, 2019.

Janer, Zilkia. The Coloniality of modern taste. A critique of gastronomic thought, London, Routledge, 2023.

Karila-Cohen, Karine, Quellier, F. (eds.), The Body of the Gourmand, from Heracles to Alexander the Blessed, Tours, Presses universitaires François-Rabelais, 2012.

Krikorian, Sandrine. Kings at the Table. Iconography, Gastronomy, and Practices of Official Meals from Louis XIII to Louis XVI, Aix-en-Provence, Presses universitaires de Provence, 2020.

Laroche, Sophie and Christophe Brouard (ed.). The Great Feast. Comic Paintings in Renaissance Italy, exh. cat., Paris, Lienart, 2017.

Latrémolière, Élisabeth and Florent Quellier. Renaissance Feasts. Cuisine and Treasures of the Table, exh. cat., Château royal de Blois, Somogy éditions d’art, 2012.

Meslin-Perrier, Chantal. The Table, a French Art from the 17th Century to the Present, Var Departmental Exhibition Hall, Draguignan, exh. cat., Milan, Silvana Editoriale, 2021.

Malka, Lauren. Women Who Eat. A History of Those Who Devour, Savor, or Deprive Themselves to Excess, Paris, Points, 2023.

Marcia Reed (ed.). The Edible Monument. The Art of Food for Festivals, exh. cat., Los Angeles, The Getty Research Institute, 2015.

Marquer, Bertrand (ed.), Allégories de l’estomac au XIXᵉ siècle. Littérature, art, philosophie, Strasbourg, Presses universitaires de Strasbourg, 2020.

Mintz, Sidney. Sweetness and Power. The Place of Sugar in Modern History, New York, NY, Penguin, 1986.

Nicolas, Brigitte (ed.). Coffee, a Pleasure with a Bitter Taste, exh. cat., Port-Louis, Museum of the India Company; Lorient, Museum of Art and History, 2022.

Pettigrew, Jane, Richardson, Bruce. A Social History of Tea. Tea’s influence on Commerce, Culture & Community, 2014.

Quellier, Florent. Gourmandise: Histoire d’un péché capital, Paris, 2010.

Revel, Jean-François. A Feast in Words. A Literary History of Gastronomic Sensibility from Antiquity to the Present Day, Paris, Taillandier, 2021 [1979].

Stalker, Nancy K. (ed.). Devouring Japan. Global perspectives on Japanese culinary identity, New York, Oxford University Press, 2018

Tea, Coffee, or Chocolate? Exotic Beverages in Paris in the XVIIIth Century, Musée Cognacq-Jay, exh. cat., Paris, Paris musées, 2015.

Versailles and the Royal Tables in Europe, XVIIth – XIXth Centuries, exh. cat., Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1993.

Victoria Avery (ed.), Feast & Fast: the Art of Food in Europe, 1500-1800, exh. cat., Cambridge, The Fitzwilliam Museum, 2019.

Walvin, James. Fruits of Empire: exotic produce and British taste, 1660-1800, New York, NYU Press, 1997.

You, Yao-Fen. Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate. Consuming the World, exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Art, 2016.

Gourmand/Gourmet:

Historical overview and suggested topics focused on French culture

Written by David Brouzet

List provided as a guide. We invite you to open the scope to non-European subjects.

Antiquity

In ancient Greece, the "symposium" consisted of drinking and discussing noble subjects at the end of the meal, while the guests at the Roman banquet often indulged in the pleasures of the table with excess and ostentation.

  • Archestratus, or Archestratos, was a Greek poet, gastronome and great traveler of the 4th century BC.
  • Plato versus Marcus Gavius Apicius
  • The Depiction of the Banquets of the Gods

The Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, the deadly sin of "gluttony" (gula in Latin) did not prevent the clergy from granting themselves all sorts of exemptions, the source of many refinements (and delicious monastic products…), nor the elites from making the banquet one of the most manifest expressions of their power.

  • The Popes of Avignon: Grand Tinel, Châteauneuf Vintages and Delights on the Banks of the Sorgue
  • The Château du Vivier and the Ponds of Chalou-Moulineux: Lean Days in the Royal Châteaux
  • Kitchens of Monasteries and Palaces: The Conciergerie, Château-Thierry, Fontevraud and Montreuil-Bellay
  • Gourmand Monks and Nuns' Desserts: The Macarons of Cormery, the SCOFA (Sugar Cream Egg Flour Almond) of the Carmelites of Niort and the Painillons of Chalaronne
  • Charles V and Taillevent: Cuisine as a Tool of Diplomacy and Influence
  • The Feast of the Pheasant at the Burgundian Court

The Renaissance

The men and women of the Renaissance enthusiastically and curiously introduced new products from other continents. Above all, they asserted the primacy of the rules of politeness to be observed at the table. By contrast, Rabelais’s philosophy was entirely different.

  • Pope Martin V and His Cook, Jean de Bockenheim
  • Platina: A Humanist Librarian and Gastronome in Rome in the Mid-15th Century
  • Dining with Erasmus or with Rabelais?
  • Agostino Chigi and the Products of the New World (depicted by Raphael in the loggia of the Farnesina in Rome)
  • A Gastronome Queen? Catherine de Medici and the True/False Introduction of Italian-Style Table Manners at the French Court
  • Montaigne: The Gastronomic Grand Tour
  • The Banquet of the Gods in Renaissance Painting

17th century

In the 17th century, a taste for display dominates. The table remains a highly codified art, but the typology of utensils becomes fixed, and recipes gain in simplicity both at Court and in town. Certain foods become all the rage and, triggering outrageous behavior, provoke the satire of moralists.

  • Poets at the Table: Saint-Amant, César Pellenc: A Libertine Table?
  • From La Varenne to Massialot: The Royal Model for All?
  • What would the royal table have been without the King’s Kitchen Garden and its designer La Quintinie?
  • Peas, Artichokes and Chocolate: When Certain Foods Become All the Rage
  • Gnathon the Glutton (La Bruyère, The Characters) versus the Précieuses

18th century

Under Louis XV, increasingly refined aristocrats became passionate about the subject, hired the greatest cooks and gave their names to recipes. This craze was soon associated with libertinism, and inspired fantasies and caricatures.

  • Alexandre-François Desportes: Still Lifes for the Regent at the Palais-Royal (Preserved at the Musée de la Chasse, Paris); Villers-Cotterêts, a Mecca of Gastronomy: Myth or Reality?
  • Women at the Table, at Women’s Tables (e.g., Madame du Barry and the First "Cordon Bleu")
  • Louis XV at Choisy and the Petit Trianon: From the Kitchen Garden to the Flying Table
  • Frederick II of Prussia: Who Said Only the French Were Gastronomes?
  • The Russian Dilemma: Catherine II of Russia and the French Models: The Splendor of Louis XIV’s Grand Couvert or the Delicacy of Louis XV’s Petits Soupers?
  • The Reality and Fantasy of Louis XVI’s Table: Contrasting the Modernization of the Meal Desired by Louis XVI with the Revolutionary Caricatures Portraying Him as a Gluttonous King
  • In the Culinary Intimacy of Marie-Antoinette and Her Sisters-in-Law
  • Recipes for Aristocrats (examples: du Barry soup, Saint-Germain soup, Soubise sauce, Chantilly cream, Contades pâté)

19th century

The First Empire saw the appearance of the term "gastronomy" and the triumph of its followers (Grimod de La Reynière, Brillat-Savarin, etc.). The time was no longer for conversation, as under the Ancien Régime, but for tasting. An opposition quickly emerged between epicureans and thinkers who advocated moderation, this time not only for moral reasons but also for health, even social, reasons.

  • Talleyrand: True Gourmet or Political Gourmet?
  • The Reign of the Gourmets: Grimod de La Reynière / Brillat-Savarin / Joseph Favre
  • The Gourmet Historian and Geographer: Jules Michelet
  • Alexandre Dumas, Le grand dictionnaire de cuisine

20th century

In the 20th century, the gap widened between a gastronome who frequents starred restaurants and everyone else, condemned to make do with industrial food. It also widened between the champions of tradition and those of modern, sometimes molecular, cuisine, between the followers of globalized, hybrid cuisine and that of our regions. The Michelin guide and the Gault & Millau dictate their laws. Television and social media have become unavoidable influencers.

  • National Route 7 and the Birth of the Starred Restaurant
  • A Queen Facing Presidents: Elizabeth II of England at the Tables of the Élysée and the Louvre
  • Karen Blixen or the Mystical Experience (Babette’s Feast)
  • The gourmet presidents:

De Gaulle and the Kitchens of the Grand Trianon: The Great Tradition of Auguste Escoffier

Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and Paul Bocuse (VGE soup, Le Président cake, ex-Montmorency)

François Mitterrand: The Forbidden Ortolans

Jacques Chirac and Gourmand Populism

  • The Revival of the 19th-Century Republican Banquets: The Deputies' Lunch at the Brasserie Georges in Lyon (1997-2002)
  • Women take the floor in the media: from Maïté to Julie Andrieux (Les Carnets de Julie) and Emmanuelle Jary (C’est meilleur quand c’est bon)

21st century

The gallery of portraits of gourmets and gourmands has widened considerably. Among the themes:

  • Consumption ethics and environmental issues (sustainable development, decarbonizing the plate, "zero mile", transparency and greenwashing, etc.)
  • Collective identities: banquets of the French Canon, village festivals around a food (Italian "sagre"), food classifications by UNESCO
  • Food and Gender
  • Gourmand / Gourmet Contrast in Film (Since the 20th Century)