DINING ROOMS AND KITCHENS
Where did they dine?
At Lunéville, as at Versailles, meals were central to the ritual surrounding the sovereign and commensality, the sharing of hospitality, formed an integral part of the "politics of prestige". In the abridged formal etiquette of Lunéville only the Duke's mid-day meal took place in public. As was the practice at Versailles, tables would be set up as required in the antechambers of the state apartments - rooms with multiple functions, easily accessible to the courtiers. The Livery Room was used for banquets and grand receptions. At the time of Stanisłas Leszczyński the Trophy Room, with its enormous stove, was set out as a permanent dining room; the King's armchair occupied a conspicuous place, with its crimson velvet upholstery and gold trimming.
Beyond these formal occasions, the ducal couple would dine en famille or with selected guests. Their reign coincided with an emerging taste for intimate meals and for dining in the open air. Dedicated dining areas ensured comfort and privacy. I n the early part of the reign the Duchess Élisabeth-Charlotte, who took an interest in cooking, had her own personal vegetable garden outside her chambers, equipped with a little kitchen and dining room. After 1719 a dedicated dining room was provided in new ducal apartments in the South-East wing. The famous mechanical table volante allowed food to be raised directly from the basement kitchens below, so as to dispense with the need for waiting staff.
Kitchens
The provision and preparation of food was a huge undertaking. The organisation of staff was divided between the Service de la Bouche, reserved for the tables of the ducal family and their guests; and the communs which catered for the 150 officials who enjoyed the privilege of "bouche à cour".
In the 1702 the kitchen staff were listed as 38 in number, including chefs, rôtisseurs, kitchen-boys, wood carriers and cellarmen. By the death of Stanislas, the total for the ducal kitchen alone had risen to 86, some with highly specialised, even esoteric functions.
At the time of Leopold's arrival in 1698 the kitchens (certainly the cuisines de la Bouche but also probably the cuisines des communs) were situated in the basement of the south part of the old château. They were equipped two fireplaces (a third was uncovered during archaeological excavations). The communs were subsequently relocated, first to the rear of the South-East wing, near the Orangery, then to to north, along the canal. The cuisines de la Bouche remained in the basement of the central pavilion. From here the mechanical table, installed in 1706, could communicate directly with the Duchess's dining room. After 1719 the ducal kitchens were moved to their present location in the basement of the South-East Wing (and the "flying table" also re-sited).
The vaulted cellar under the chapel, which is currently open to visitors, served as the Cup-Bearer's Room (échansonnerie" ); here wine arrived in barrels through a trapdoor on the rue du Château, to be be bottled and distributed to the various cellars, the principal one of which was under the South staircase.
Following the acquisition of the former state apartments from the Ministry of Defence in 2017, the ducal kitchens in the basement of the South Wing can now occasionally be visited. The first tours were conducted in 2017 for the
jours européennes du patrimoine. Thierry Franz explained to his group that until the fire of 2003, this space had been occupied by the Army Officers' mess. In 2014 official permission had been granted for the removal of the false ceilings and the tiling which covered the walls. In the 18th century this area would have been a hive of activity, hot, noisy and filled with smoke. The main room was the
rôtisserie, where the meats were prepared and cooked. This was followed by a room devoted to deserts, which were Stanislas's particular penchant. Heated cupboards would have been fitted around the walls to preserve the elaborate sugar and almond paste decorations.
The splendour of this space is illustrated in the famous confectioner's manual, Le Cannaméliste français, written by Stanislas's pastry cook Joseph Gilliers:
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| Preparing desserts - detail from the frontispiece of Le Cannaméliste français, Nancy 1751 |
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The tour group was also able to see the basement bathroom, dating from 1715-19, with its niches which once held the Duke and Duchess's twin baths. The room would have been decorated with Delft tiles and opened out onto a parterre of sweet-smelling flowers, since it was then the custom to take of a siesta after bathing. A little further on, beneath the Duke's dining room, the second incarnation of the "flying table" once operated: an oval opening in the ceiling shows where the mechanism was lowered.
See: Catherine Ambrosi, "Les sous-sols du chateau se devoilent", L'Est Republicain, 18.09.2017.
https://www.estrepublicain.fr/edition-de-luneville/2017/09/18/les-sous-sols-du-chateau-se-devoilent
THE TABLE
Silverware and china
Service "à la française"
At table, as elsewhere, the new Court of Lorraine mirrored best European practice. According to Louis XIV's emissary d'Audiffret, the cooks and waiting staff were "for the most part French". At the beginning of 1698 it was reported that Leopold had sent several of his officiers de Bouche to Paris to learn the art of service à la française (Gazette de Hollande, Paris, 17th February 1698). Dishes were now to be served as a series of separate courses - soups and entrées, meats, then deserts and fruits. This allowed for a more sophisticated table setting - as can be seen in the example below, laid out for an exhibition held at the Château's in 2014. A particular feature of the arrangement was the "surtout", a central stand for oil and vinegar, which was often elaborate in design. At this period glasses were normally set out on a separate buffet and brought to guests on demand.
At the time of the marriage of Leopold and Élisabeth-Charlotte, a number of sizeable orders were placed for silver and gilt tableware. The preference of the Duchess was for Parisian goldsmiths. The travels of the ducal couple in 1698 and 1718 gave them access to fashionable French innovations. During their second stay in Paris the Regent made a present to his sister of "un précieux nécessaire", a case containing a tea or coffee set with white porcelain cups, decorated in gold and enamel. The same sophistication was later available in Lorraine, where the merchants La Frenaye and Herbault became regular suppliers of luxury crockery and tableware. In 1726, the latter furnished, at a cost of 4,000 livres, a sumptuous tea service consisting of six gilded cups and saucers, a sugar bowl lined with gold, plus a teapot and caddy. The following year he supplied a drinks set, with carafes and a goblet of rock crystal mounted in gold.
La faïencerie de Lunéville
The duchess inherited from her father a taste for refined porcelain and, after 1718, received a number of fine items from the porcelain works at Vienna, many of them gifts from the Austrian Empress or from her son Francis during his sojourn in the Hapsburg territories. In Lorraine, a luxury ceramics industry began to flourish from the start of the century. The faïencerie in Lunéville was founded by Jacques Chambrette in 1720, and subsequently promoted to the rank of "royal manufactory". Its production reached a pinacle at the time of Stanislas; in imitation of models from Strasbourg, the pieces were rococo in style, decorated with flowers, birds, and Chinoiserie, their dominant colour often a carmine pink In addition the factory produced statuettes in both coloured faïence and white biscuit-ware, also decorative stoves and monumental pieces such as Duke Leopold's yellow-and-blue "lions de perron".
The Association des Amis de la faïence ancienne de Lunéville has held a number of temporary exhibitions at the Château and a number of exampes belonging to the museum's collections are on permanent display. The dinner services and occasional pieces are pretty, but some of the larger items are a bit of an acquired taste!
See: Anais Maxant Aménagement interieur: design for the temporary exhibition "Terres Lorraines au XVIII°, Faïences de Lunéville et sa région" held at the at the Château de Lunéville in 2018.
The Association des Amis de la faïence ancienne de Lunéville has a Facebook page but not a website.
Below, a fragment of faience from the Manufacture de Niderviller, part of a "surtout" in the form of a cottage, c. 1760. The piece, which recently rediscovered in the museum at Sèvres, is a small remnant of an ambitious assemblage ordered by Stanislas for his Turkish pavilion.
FOOD AND DRINK
We are told - and it is doubtless true - that the 18th-century was a new golden age of French cuisine, in which more refined taste for delicate and natural flavours combined with new heights of fanciful and extravagant presentation.
Archival studies have illuminated the splendour of the tables of the last dukes. Aurélie Chatenet-Calyste has analysed the detailed accounts, the "Dépenses de la bouche" from the time of Leopold, which reveal the supply of the ducal table to have been an enormous strategic operation. . In 1712 the cost of food and drink was 20,000 livres a month, representing 15% of total Household expenditure By the time of Stanislas, that figure had risen to more than 30,000 livres a month, not including game and wines.
Orders were passed to local merchants and specialist suppliers in France and throughout Europe. From Italy came oranges and lemons, whilst the Genovese merchant Thomas Marsano also regularly exported Bologna sausages, coffee and parmesan. The Hapsburg lands furnished wines from the Tyrol, hams from Mainz and Westphalia, chocolates from Brussels, and beer from Liège. Seafood was transported each week from Brussels, Dieppe and the Le Tréport in Normandy, as well as from the Mediterranean ports. There were many fine cuts of meat; plentiful game, and fish for fast days, often brought fresh from Dieppe or Brussels.
The map above from the 2015 exhibition, "Tous à table ! Les plaisirs du palais à Lunéville", gives an idea - I can't find a larger image.[
archived website]
The "Maison du marchand" in Lunéville, at No.1 rue du Château, a splendid Rococo building is of pink Vosges sandstone, serves as a reminder of the prosperous trade the ducal Household once brought to the little town. To judge from several exotic carvings, showing a minaret, an elephant and the head of an Indian, this was once the premises of a merchant of spices and oriental foodstuffs, probably in the service of the Court.
Wines
The ducal wine-cellar, an important symbol of prestige, was well-stocked and varied, the orders ample and regular, especially at time of fêtes. In 1727 twelves carts brought foreign wines. In the later 17th century Champagne and Burgundy dominated the hierarchy of French wines. The Duke also drank German or Austrian wine, from the Tyrol and Rhineland, as well as Hungarian Tokay.
The Duchess had a reputation for a refined palate, "le haut goût". She imported such delicacies as Piedmont truffles and pâtés from Périgueux, and personally tasted consignments of Champagne before authorising the cellarmen to receive the orders. She also enjoyed cooking. At the time of her arrival in Lorraine she had a kitchen installed in her private apartments, which was superbly decorated and equipped. It was here that she prepared her pâté de lapin (the museum has one of the terrines which she used for the recipe) and various jams and preserves.
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| Terrine used by the Duchess Élisabeth-Charlotte to cook rabbit. From the 2015 exhibition. |
I am not so sure that the Duke was so discerning; he was more of a bon viveur. According to the French envoy D'Audiffret, Leopold preferred "la nourriture et les plaisirs allemands" - not, we can safely surmise, testimony to his gastronomic sophistication. On his fête day, the jour de Saint-Léopold, in 1703 he was reported to have overindulged to the point of giving himself stomach-ache. His doctor, Alliot, finally convinced him that he not been poisoned but remarked that, if he continued to eat with such lack of moderation, he would end up poisoning himself. (Letter of D'Audiffret to Louis XIV, 18th November 1703, cited Baumont, Études sur le règne de Léopold, p.264)
The Court did not always have to seek far afield for delicacies. The famous "melon de Lunéville", a variety well-adapted to northern climes, was a particular favourite of King Stanislas, who was said to gorge himself to the point of indigestion. In recent years its cultivation has been revived thanks to the efforts of the local Lunéville horticultural society. We are told that during the 18th and 19th centuries, century, the production of melons was facilitated in la cité cavalière by a plentiful supply of horse manure. Melons are demanding to grow and require a constant temperature. In the kitchen gardens of the Château, they were protected under glass; gardeners were obliged to rise early to open the frames to prevent the melons from catching the sun.
AT TABLE WITH KING STANISLAS
After 1737, the new duke, the former King Stanislas of Poland, added an additional level of Rococo extravagance to festive meals, particularly those which took place in in his fantastical summer houses and pleasure pavilions at Lunéville, La Malgrange and Commercy. Stanislas is associated particularly, with the development of desserts and sweets. His pastry chefs vied with one another to come up with imaginative creations; the rum baba, for instance is popularly credited to Nicolas Stohrer who left Stanislas's service in 1725 to followed Marie Lescyzczka to France, and in 1730 founded the Parisian patisserie that still bears his name.
Legend has it that Stanislas himself was personally responsible for the introduction of the madeleine cake. The story goes that one evening at Commercy, when was no dessert, a young servant called Madeleine offered him her family recipe for little gateaux cooked in scallop shells. Thierry Franz tells us that scallop-shaped moulds were mentioned in the inventory for the batterie de cuisine at the Château from the 1760s, proof that madeleines were indeed served at the supper parties of Stanislas; the table would be adorned with pyramids of individual cakes - macarons, visitandines, financiers and the like.
Radio France, "Les curiosités du chateau de Lunéville - Les madeleines de Lunéville et les goûters de Stanislas", broadcast of 17.05.2019, with Thierry Franz. (On
francebleu.fr )
The Cannaméliste français
It was a chef d'office at Lunéville, Joseph Gilliers, who was responsible for the best-known 18th-century confectioners' manual of all, Le Cannaméliste français, published in Nancy 1751. The book features recipes for all sorts of delicacies, but is best known for its pioneering ices or "neiges" - sorbets and iced creams, in a host of different of flavours. The illustrations reveal how table decoration reached a new imaginative heights, with whole scenes sculpted in sugar, adorned with porcelain figures and miniature fountains which spurted real jets of water.
Sadly virtually nothing is known about Gilliers's life: See:
Carolin C. Young, "Gilliers and the Chateau de Luneville", chapter in Food & Material Culture: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2013, p.39-44.
Food historian Ivan Day meticulously recreated the sinuous arabesques of one of the most famous plates from Gilliers for this gorgeous reconstruction, which featured in the exhibition "Sèvres Then and Now", at Hillwood Museum and Gardens in Washington, D.C in 2010:
General references
Caroline Loiller, "Fêtes et cérémonies à Lunéville aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles", Lecture of 2nd December 2022, delivered at the Château de Lunéville . [VIDEO]
"Tous à table ! Les plaisirs du palais à Lunéville", temporary exhibition at the Château in 2015.
Aurélie Chatenet-Calyste, "Une consommation cosmopolite ? Fournisseurs étrangers et réseau marchand international au service de la cour de Lorraine", in: Échanges, passages et transferts à la cour du duc Léopold (1698-1729). Presses universitaires de Rennes (2017), p.195-207.
Chantal Humbert, Les arts décoratifs en Lorraine : de la fin du XVIIe siècle à l'ère industrielle (1993) - chapters on glassware and ceramics.
There is a mountain of literature devoted to 18th-century dining and food. For a "taster", see:
"Gastronomie" on the Stanislas Urbi & orbi de Nancy website maintained by Bruno Denise, "formerly a Nancy pastry chef".
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