ABSTRACT
Food is central to festivity, from the grandeur of the dining hall and the extravagance of the food, to the precise ordering of who may sit at table and where their seat should be or was positioned. In Paris, a workforce of 4,866 was required to prepare the food in twelve kitchens around the capital. A further workforce of 20,000 waiters had to be on hand to serve the 22,965 guests, and themselves had to be fed. The unassailable association between France and the arts of the table ensures that both producers and consumers of food are acknowledged and recompensed. Participants in the banquet are not performers on the one hand and spectators on the other, not host and guests, but entirely performers and entirely hosts, as a consequence of bearing the cost of the meal collectively through the public purse.
