The history of the Western World took a sharp right turn almost 500 years ago when Catherine de’ Medici journeyed from her Tuscan palace in elegant Florence to Paris — a perilous, gothic city of civil servants and shopkeepers — to marry the future King, Henri II. She brought with her an entourage of expert cooks and pastry chefs who represented a culinary evolution of 1,500 years. The ancient Roman extravagances of the wealthy and the porridge of the poor had given way to a beautiful marriage: the Apennine Peninsula’s freshest sea- and farm-to-table foods and highly evolved preparation and baking techniques. In fact, by the turn of the 16th century, Florentine cuisine, unmatched anywhere in the world, led the way but the peninsula, in its entirety produced Europe’s first fully developed cuisine.
Fourteen years after her arrival, Catherine’s husband was crowned and she became Queen consort. Her Medici kitchen brigade continued teaching French cooks the techniques that would make them Chefs. When Catherine died, 56 years after her arrival in France, she had birthed three kings as well as the cuisine of a nation.
