A taste of Versailles as a court insider
Bringing the Palace of Versailles to the dinner table, a restaurant is turning a diner à deux into a liaison dangereuse with staff in court costume, dishes Sun King Louis XIV and Louis XV would recognise and Baroque music throughout.
Costumed actors perform sketches on court scandals – what really happened at Marie Antoinette’s ‘farm’ – in breaks between courses at ReminiSens in Versailles, which has been dubbed a ‘restaurant-théatre’.
It is a novel approach to entice tourists and local residents and owner Caroline Masselin has recreated the ‘mood’ of the Château de Versailles while keeping menus up-to-date.
Adapting period recipes, including a 1729 royal recipe book, chef Marie Bin tweaks them for modern tastes with lighter dishes using more vegetables and fewer heavy pâtés, and combining meat, fish and vegetables in a way never seen at a royal banquet.
This, she said, is because today we eat in the ‘Russian style’, with separate courses, and not the ‘French style’ of serving everything – sweet and savoury – at the same time.
Apart from Marie Antoinette, sketches include anecdotes on royal scandals and a ‘liaisons dangereuses’ style skit on Louis XV and Madame Pompadour and they are part of what make ReminiSens different.
Ms Masselin said: “I am from Versailles, and visited the chateau all the time. It was a dream to imagine what it would be like to bump into courtiers in the corridors, to dive into the heart of a dinner at court, in rooms decorated so they could be the private apartments of the nobles... to enjoy ‘a journey through history’ with all the intrigue and secrets of the time.”
