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Catherine de Medici (1519-1589), born into one of wealthiest and infamous of families, might well have originated the phrase 'poor little rich girl'. Orphaned within three weeks of her birth, she grew up mostly under the care of convents, as decreed by her uncle, Pope Clement VII. At 14, she was sent to France to marry Henry, the second son of the king of France (Francis I). Despite her dowry of the city-state of Florence, the French court looked down at her as merely as a merchant's daughter and largely ignored her. As the wife of a second son, she was not a person of great importance, which increased the court's ability to disregard her. Catherine's husband, who would eventually ascend to the throne, already had a well-established relationship with his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, a woman 20 years older than the prince, and who would stay faithful to him until his death. (As a mark of Henry's devotion, he always wore Diane's colors of black and white, and presented her with the crown jewels.)
It is no wonder, therefore, that in this atmosphere, Catherine longed for a taste of home. The lonely princess had brought along a retinue of cooks (called capi cuochi) with her, and now they comforted her with the delicacies of her homeland-sorbets, macaroons, frangipane tarts, and zabaglione. They introduced vegetables never before seen in France-broccoli, green beans, peas, truffles, artichokes, and melons. Guinea hens, as well as veal made an appearance. And most importantly, these Italian cooks taught the French how to move past the medieval preferences for meats prepared with dry rubs of strong spices, but instead how to employ delicate sauces.
Catherine also brought nicety to the table in the area of manners--she brought along the fork and table etiquette. In this, the French were a bit slower to adopt the fashion--not for another hundred years would the fork take hold, and table manners would be scoffed at as effeminate until the reign of the Sun King (Louis XIV).
Catherine would later gain fame as the wife of the king and the mother to three others. As queen dowager she would be known as Madame Snake, with secret hideaways for poison rings and daggers. She would gain infamy in her role in the Saint Bartholomew Massacre and praise for her role in bringing ballet to France in 1581 with her sponsored production of Ballet Comique de la Reine.
Her cousin, Marie de Medici, would also marry into the French royal family in 1600, and continued the tradition of bringing culinary innovation with her. Her contribution was the puff pastry-or more accurately, the method of making a puff pastry that would rise greatly while maintaining an exquisite flakiness. It is this method (which depends on treating the fat in the dough as layers themselves) that led to the development of the croissant, and the fruit pastries so associated with France today.
History has been unkind to Catherine, and perhaps with reason. A woman with a penchant for poisoning is unlikely to be praised for her culinary and cultural contributions as well. But the Culinary Institute of America does her honor by naming one of their restaurants for her. The Caterina de Medici Gastronomic Society, a culinary group in the US, praise her for bringing Italian cooking, the most sophisticated of the time, to France.
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