2023-12-23 13:00:00
While our plate has undergone big changes, observes Pierre Leclercq – notably from the 1980s with aromatics, sweet and salty foods brought by tourism, globalization and migration – “there has been no great revolution for the moment on the Christmas table”.
Mousses and galantines
The historian specifies: “it was only in the 70s and 80s that we saw an attempt to deconstruct the Christmas meal. We are in full modernity. It is the time of fusion cuisine, of exoticism. We are moving away from the traditional turkey. We are seeing mousses, fish galantines appear. We are also trying to save time. Women are increasingly joining the job market and spending three days cooking is finished. In the women’s press of the time, there was talk of separate parties: adults on one side, children on the other, with very distinct menus.”
For Pierre Leclercq, this trend towards deconstruction did not last.
“I have the impression that we are witnessing a return to the traditional in recent years. “And the confinements, which deprived us of our families and our traditions, undoubtedly played a role. For the historian, it is not tomorrow that turkey and game will disappear from our plates at Christmas.
And the economic crisis? “We saw it two or three years ago, people continued to spend for Christmas. Even in the 19th century, poor families celebrated Christmas. We preferred to sacrifice ourselves during the year to be able to have a nice table at the end of year.”
But at a time when we are trying to raise awareness of environmental problems, will the Christmas table be the same in 50 years? “When we see the progress we are making on meat from stem cells or in precision agriculture, I tell myself that the Christmas meal of 2070 will be the same but with different sources and agricultural methods. “
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