This week, we’re putting the focus on French gastronomy as we spare a thought for France’s restaurant owners, staff and caterers, who are struggling through the Covid-19 crisis. We take a look back at the history of haute cuisine, from the first known recipe to the publication of the Michelin Guide. We also take you around the Château de Valençay, where fine dining was used as a political weapon in the 19th century. Finally, we check out a top culinary school in Paris, where budding chefs from around the world are absorbing the expertise of French masters.
Category Archives: History
Wine Regions: Origins Of Barolo In Northern Italy
Fri, 01/08/2021
Barolo is made from the Nebbiolo grape, or more precisely, from three sub-varieties of Nebbiolo, whose name recalls the fog (‘nebbia’ in Italian) that often envelopes the hills and valleys where it’s made at the time of the vendemmia.
Just eleven comuni (towns) are allowed to produce Barolo, all comprised within a small area in the province of Cuneo, to the east of the regional capital of Turin: La Morra, Barolo, Verduno, Castiglione Falletto, Monforte d’Alba, Serralunga, Novello, Roddi, Grinzano Cavour, Diano d’Alba and Cherasco.
Among Italy’s Unesco World Heritage Sites aren’t just artworks, castles, cities and monuments; there are also entire areas, such as the vineyard landscape of Langhe-Roero and Monferrato in the north-western region of Piedmont; this landscape constitute, according to Unesco, “an outstanding example of man’s interaction with his natural environment,” and an “outstanding living testimony to winegrowing and winemaking traditions that stem from a long history, and that have been continuously improved and adapted up to the present day.”
It is precisely in this area that one of the world’s greatest wines originated: Barolo.
Travel In The Cotswolds: ‘Minchinhampton’ (Video)
Minchinhampton is a Cotswold village on the western side of the Cotswolds, near Stroud. Its ancient 580 acre common offers far reaching views across the severn estuary and into Wales. This classic English village is well worth a visit for any Cotswold traveller.
Europe: ‘An Economic History Of Poland’ (Video)
The Polish economy was the fastest growing European economy over the last two decades, being the only one to avoid a recession following 2008. Outperforming other post communist nations, to become the first to reach developed status. However it’s fair to say that Poland often receives less attention than it deserves. Despite regularly being touted as Europe’s growth engine. This raises all sorts of questions, like how has Poland’s Economy done so well? Why do under 26 year olds pay less income tax and whether, as some have suggested, it can catch up with Germany’s average income by 2040. Is Poland a Tiger Economy?
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces, covering an area of 312,696 square kilometres, and has a largely temperate seasonal climate.
Cocktails With A Curator: Meissen “Swan Service”
This week’s episode of “Cocktails with a Curator” is a story of creation and destruction. Join Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator Xavier F. Salomon as he examines two pieces of the legendary Meissen “Swan Service,” which was all but destroyed during World War II when Russian soldiers ransacked a palace in the Polish village of Brody. This opulent set of dishes was given by Augustus III, King of Poland, to the statesman Heinrich von Brühl, who helped engineer Augustus’s ascent to the throne in 1734. Originally comprised of 2,200 intricately designed pieces, only about 100 pieces survive. This week’s complementary cocktail is a spiked hot chocolate.
Meissen porcelain or Meissen china was the first European hard-paste porcelain. Early experiments were done in 1708 by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus.
To view these objects in detail, please visit our website: https://www.frick.org/swanmeissen
Travel Journeys: ‘Ashio, Japan’ – Return To Forests
Dig deeper into the story of Ashio, a former mining town in Tochigi Prefecture that’s returning to nature with the passage of time and contributions of hard-working residents.
[Skip Intro] 1:59
The Ashio Copper Mine (足尾銅山, Ashio Dōzan) was a copper mine located in the town of Ashio, Tochigi, (now part of the city of Nikkō, Tochigi), in the northern Kantō region of Japan. It was significant as the site of Japan’s first major pollution disaster in the 1880s and the scene of the 1907 miners riots. The pollution disaster led to the birth of the Japanese environmental movement and the 1897 Third Mine Pollution Prevention Order. The pollution incident also triggered changes in the mine’s operations that played a role in the 1907 riots, which became part of a string of mining disputes in 1907. During World War Two the mine was worked by POW forced labour.
Historic Villages: ‘Barnes – Richmond Upon Thames’ In Southwest London, UK
Barnes played a role in everything from the invention of football to the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. Carla Passino takes a closer look.
Until an army of 19th-century engineers descended on Barnes to build bridges and railways, this was a world apart, a rural idyll preserved intact by the Thames that bounds it on three sides.
Mentioned in the Domesday Book, the village had made history even earlier, when it was granted by King Æthelstan to the canons of St Paul in the 900s. The link between Barnes and St Paul’s persists more than 1,000 years on, as the Dean and Chapter owns one of the local gems: 122-acre Barnes Common.
Today, its woodland and acid grass-land are an oasis for hedgehogs, bats, butterflies and Nature-starved Londoners, but, for many centuries, they were home to grazing cattle. The livestock even became embroiled in a dispute between Barnes and neighbouring Putney in 1589, when ‘the men of Barnes refused to allow the men of Putney to use the Common and impounded their cattle,’ reports A History of the County of Surrey.
English History: Roman Ruins In Northumberland
Northumberland is one of Britain’s most historic regions, an archaeological treasure trove of impressive buildings that date back to the Roman conquest: From Hadrian’s Wall to the Vindolanda Fort.
From Aerial Britain: https://bit.ly/38DQJao
Travel & Nature: ‘Bladon Lake At Blenheim Palace’ In Woodstock, England
Blenheim Palace is a monumental country house in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England. It is the principal residence of the Dukes of Marlborough, and the only non-royal, non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. The palace, one of England’s largest houses, was built between 1705 and 1722, and designated a UNESCOWorld Heritage Site in 1987.
Landmarks & History: ‘The Pantheon – Rome’ (Video)
“Anyone who steps inside the Pantheon immediately feels the crushing weight of human history, but also the incredible lightness of human creativity,”
If Rome is the Eternal City, the Pantheon is its eternal building, still in use after 2,000 years and attracting six million visitors a year.
The Pantheon is a former Roman temple, now a Catholic church, in Rome, Italy, on the site of an earlier temple commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus. It was rebuilt by the emperor Hadrian and probably dedicated about 126 AD.
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