The history of dining out

For as long as people have needed to spend time away from home, there have been institutions that would provide food in exchange for money. Wayside taverns have been a feature of every civilisation from the Romans to the Victorians. But in every age and every country, such inns did little more than satisfy hunger. For hundreds of years eating in public was not dining, it was merely feeding.

The coffee houses that flourished in Europe from the mid-17th century were principally meeting houses – forums for the intellectuals of the day. In England they earned the nickname ‘penny universities’ after the stimulating conversation and the coffee – which cost a penny a cup. Such establishments rarely offered any more than light snacks. Hungry patrons had to return home, or find a tavern that had the good sense to employ a cook. Coffee houses remained popular, evolving into cafés across Europe while in England they became gentlemen’s clubs.

 

The idea that cooking is an art, and that enjoying food is an aesthetic experience worth paying for, arose in France in the middle of the 18th century. The philosophical groundwork came from the French thinker Jean Brillat-Savarin, whose most famous aphorism is, ‘Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.’

He noted the appearance in Paris of ‘restaurants’ – a word first recorded in its modern sense in 1765 – and defined them later as places where people could eat whenever they wanted, choosing from a list of dishes and knowing in advance how much they were going to pay.