Catherine de Medici. Italy’s Greatest Gift to French cuisine?

 

       Catherine, the most influential Italian in the history of French cuisine.

       

       Medicis, Catherine de - Catherine de Medici (1519–89).  Catherine's influence on French cuisine was a side-effect of her marriage, in Paris, at age 14, to Prince Henry, also age 14, the son of King Francis I of France. That marriage changed French cuisine forever and Catherine’s and her Florentine family were directly responsible.

       

        Catherine came to France accompanied by a retinue of Florentine chefs, cooks, market gardeners and vintners; a wedding gift from her father Lorenzo de' Medici, the absolute ruler of Florence. At that time, Florence was Europe’s undisputed center of fine cuisine. Catherine’s chefs brought much more than pasta, they brought new soft drinks such as lemonade and orangeade; her market gardeners brought many different herbs and vegetables including a love for basil.  The vintners also brought new eau de vies, fruit brandies, and new methods of wine production; the French eau-de-vie, called marc is a direct relation to the Italian grappa.

       

         At the same time all of Europe was slowly awakening to many more different herbs, spices, fruits and vegetables that the conquistadors had brought back to Spain.Catherine’s   Florentine chefs took what they had brought with them and also began working with the new arrivals from the New World; to that they added all the wines, cheeses, fruits and vegetables they found in France. The combination created a culinary revolution in France; like it or not Catherine’s arrival from Italy was directly associated with the foundations of much of modern French cuisine.

         

          For the French and Italian kitchens the two countries borders were always  mutually beneficial; recipes, fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices and vines have been taken by both countries, improved upon and then returned.

Catherine’s Prince Henry would become King Henry, and when he died Catherine became the power behind the throne of France. Her sons would become the next three kings of France, more on that later.

 

           Catherine died just eight months before her third son King Henry III was murdered. Henry III had no descendants and the throne passed to King Henry III of Navarre (1553-1610), who became KingHenry IV of France (1589-1610) the first of the Bourbon Kings of France.

 

           http://behind-the-french-menu.blogspot.com.tr/2013/03/italys-gift-to-french-cuisine-catherine.html