There is more to Versailles than just her Hall of Mirrors. History, art and architecture, and even cuisine has been carefully preserved at the palace.

What did the royal court at Versailles eat in the 17th century? The age of Louis XIV brought a shift in French cuisine. In medieval Europe, food was often bland no matter if you were king or peasant. But in 1651, François Pierre de la Varenne and his influential cookbook, Le Cuisinier François, revolutionized French cooking. La Varenne broke from the Italian tradition of using heavy spices to mask the taste of often spoiled food and selected instead fresh herbs such as parsley, thyme, and tarragon. The emphasis was placed on the natural flavor of the dish and how to complement it. Vegetables such as cauliflower, cabbage, asparagus, peas, artichoke, and cucumbers became all the rage. Prior, vegetables were considered inedible and unhealthy by the aristocracy. Furthermore, the Italian Renaissance taste for mixing sweet and salty ingredients in the same dish was abandoned by the French. Preference was for a strict separation of sweet and salty, the former always coming at the end of the meal. New methods such as broiling and frying were developed. The goal was to preserve the natural flavors of fresh meat, fish, and vegetables. Everything changed in the royal kitchens in how food was prepared, presented, and tasted. Food became an art form. At Versailles, the quest for authentic flavors was matched by the Sun King's passion for splendor and opulence. Royal meals were rich and complex and required a kitchen team of 500 to feed the more than 3,000 nobles at court. Each course was brought out in successive waves, choreographed, and orchestrated throughout the hours-long meal. Anything remaining was sold to merchants but the largest amount of uneaten food was bought by the courtesans, who were required to purchase their own meals. There were a lot of courtesans to be fed at Versailles. In the 17th century, meals were mainly served in small rooms. The idea of a large dining room at Versailles appeared during the latter half of the 18th century with Louis XV (as seen above in the film Maire Antoinette.) The Sun King preferred a more intimate dining experience. He would eat alone or in the company of his wife, children, and grandchildren. He used gold plates but there were no forks. Since the Middle Ages, food was seen as a gift from God and was to be eaten with one's fingers, spoon, and knife. Frankly, I think the fork too closely resembles a pitchfork used out in the fields and it gave the king and the nobility an uneasy feeling of pending unrest. Created between 1678 and 1783, the Potager du Roi or kitchen garden of Louis XIV produced fresh vegetables and fruits for the royal court. Jean-Baptiste de la Quintinie was the garden's planner and first director. The design covers 25 acres with a circular pond and fountain in the center. The Grand Carré consists of a large square made up of 16 smaller squares of vegetables. The king could watch the workers from his terrace situated high above the tall walls of the garden. Today, you can still enjoy a 17th-century meal with a modern twist at Versailles. Ore is an elegant contemporary restaurant set within the walls of the palace. The food is a blend of old and new. It's simple and delicious. Much of what is served comes from the Potager du Roi. During the day, you can find simple meals for breakfast or lunch, enjoyed overlooking the royal courtyard. I love their Thé de la Reine Marie in the afternoon. Perfect when I need a break between visiting the interiors of the palace in the morning and venturing out into the gardens for the rest of the afternoon. I also recommend the breakfast at Ore called Le Lever du roi. Forty euros might seem like a big splurge for pastries and a hot beverage but this meal also comes with direct access to the palace. That is priceless if you have ever seen the queues. Even with your museum pass, you now have a very long wait to get in to see the interiors. I'm talking hours of waiting. So my advice: Arrive at Versailles between 8:30 and 9:00 am. Go enjoy breakfast at Ore, use the loo, and then sashay into the Hall of Mirrors sans the line. After you complete the inside tour of the palace, go and take in the gardens and the Queen's Hamlet. If you are exhausted at the end of the day - which you will be - you'll find a sweet café named La Flottille at the back of the gardens just off the Grand Canal. Have a drink and then grab the little train that will take you back to the château.  The evening dinner at Versailles is reserved for special events. The restaurant opens after all the visitors have left. Servers don 18th-century garb and the tables are set with reproductive Marie-Antoinette porcelain. Both the restored setting and the menu evoke a time gone by.  What might a fresh spin on a 17th-century dinner look like at Ore? Surprisingly, a delicious meal that you can prepare at home with fresh ingredients. You might begin with an ancient herb beloved in France - sorrel - prepared in a soup with cream, butter, and peas. Louis XIV was obsessed with peas. La Quintinie grew them in both the king's garden and greenhouses in order to have a year-round supply. The menu continues with multiple courses of pigeon, chicken, and or fish. No need to prepare all three for a meal at home. Select a favorite and top with a lemon and parsley butter sauce. At Ore, poultry is still prepared in the same way chef La Varenne recommended: Boiled in stock to preserve its tender white meat. You'll find little beef or pork on the menu since both were considered "vulgar" at the French Court. What you will find is lots of flowering vegetables and fruits such as artichoke and cabbage which were preferable to root vegetables such as beetroot and carrots. Ore prepares a simple dish of mushroom, fresh herbs, and lentils. Not just any lentil but French Puy green lentils. The best. They are smaller and darker than your average lentil and they hold their shape well so you don't end up with mush. They're nutty and peppery and are a perfect complement to the champignons. This would be my favorite part of the meal. The fruit course is what we would call dessert today. It was the grand finale of every court meal. The King's orangerie encompassed 2,000 orange trees that produced all year round. It was built by Jules Hardouin-Mansart between 1684-1686. Besides adding more space to grow delicacies such as apples, pears, figs, grapes, almonds, and pistachios, the orangerie was a theatrical setting to entertain guests at court. Fruit would be candied or cooked into competes and pies. Ice cream and sorbets were a privileged delicacy and highly sought-after in the 17th century. Only the elite could indulge. The ice used to enclose the sorbet goblets was made at Versailles from frozen water found on the grounds and preserved in wells that ran dozens of meters deep. There was an art to ice-harvesting and preserving that allowed frozen treats to be available in the heat of summer. And what about fromage? Cheese was highly suspect at court. It was either too runny or had too many holes. But Louis XIV began serving fresh cheeses made from the local dairies after the fruit course which led to the French expression - entre la poire et le fromage - "between pear and cheese." This is the time when bellies are full and the conversation begins. A meal that begins with a creamed sorrel soup, includes mushroom and lentils, simply prepared vegetables and fowl, and ends with a pear tart and a good brie is a meal fit not only for a 17th-century French king but for an intimate 21st-century weekend dinner as well. "When I eat a cabbage soup, I like for it to taste of cabbage."    - François Pierre de La Varenne, Le Cuisinier Français Three years ago, I had the pleasure of exploring Versailles with my Belle-mère. We were one of the last to leave the gardens and as we approached the exit we were stopped. There was a wedding leaving the palace and we couldn't cross until all the guests had left which took a couple of hours. We had a front-row seat to France's modern aristocrats. All of the fountains were going, so I slipped back into the gardens and witnessed - alone - each "room" with their water feature flowing and music playing. Incroyable! French cuisine spread from Versailles across the country and beyond its borders thanks to printed pamphlets with recipes, and the Revolution. Cooks from aristocratic households found themselves unemployed after the French Revolution and many opened restaurants to continue their trade. That number exploded under Napolean when dining out became the fashion in Paris. Versailles opened her doors two days ago after being closed due to the pandemic. The Royal Chapel, fingers crossed, is scheduled to open this summer after a decade-long restoration. When you visit, you'll find many of the traditions of 17th-century court life carefully preserved. It's an opportunity to explore the history, art and architecture, and even cuisine up close.    This weekend, make something with lentils.    À bientôt mon amie, Karen 🍽🥬🇫🇷