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"Republicans on both shores, let's celebrate Calf's Head Day!"

2022-01-21T15:02:22.785Z


FIGAROVOX/TRIBUNE - On January 21, 1794, the tradition of the Republican banquet was born, which served calf's head to celebrate the anniversary of the King's death. On this anniversary, Renaud Large wishes to revive this tradition which unites against the slayers of French gastronomy.


Renaud Large is communicative.

He co-wrote a note for the Jean-Jaurès Foundation entitled

From the black hussars of the Republic to the chronicle of the Bridgertons.

Against the woke nebula and the cancel culture.

We are seated at the Formica table.

The oilcloth with geometric patterns that covers it plays with the alignment of the cutlery.

The court-bouillon lives its last moments.

Madame wears a polka-dot blouse, topped with a floral apron.

Its perm is maintained by Elnett hairspray with its characteristic fragrance.

Monsieur pulls up his rough velvet trousers in the middle of his stomach.

He wears a light gray and brown checked shirt, probably produced in the Vosges.

Hairless skin, he emanates from him the vulgar smell of Aqua Velva aftershave.

The blades of the Thiers cutlery will soon be splitting the gelatin of the calf's head.

The Gribiche sauce waits in its bowl to be coated on the meat preparation.

We are on January 21 on the borders of Limousin, Beaujolais or perhaps in Morvan or Bourbonnais.

“Louis must die because the country must live

.”

This scene, you may have experienced it with your grandparents, your parents, your cousins ​​or friends. Children of the century, you may have attended this ceremony between the 1950s and the mid-1980s. You may have belonged to the RPR of Louchébem or the PCF of the blast furnaces. Whatever your political, social or cultural differences, you had in common the defense of one regime - The Republic - against another - The Monarchy -. On the other side of the spectrum, it was another symbolism. The royalists wore the black tie and communicated during a traditionalist religious ceremony or a meditation at the necropolis of the kings of France in Saint-Denis. They vilified the “Pug”, an ignominious regime which had curtailed the last monarch by divine right.

The traditional dish of Republican and Enlightenment defense would today be classified as a "fascist" symbol.

The activism of a handful of cultural leftists has passed through this and, with it, its share of desecrations of the revolutionary heritage.

Renaud Large

What remains of this tradition and its division? To be honest, not much. Restaurants no longer offer calf's head on January 21, with a few rare exceptions. Since the closure of the iconic Coq de la Maison Blanche in the former communist town of Saint-Ouen, Lyon enthusiasts will find this patriotic dish at Carpe Diem, in the historic stronghold of Édouard Herriot's radicals. The dish does not sell better that day than the rest of the year at the butchers. According to Kantar WorldPanel, veal consumption has been falling steadily since 2012, with a 4% drop in the number of heads slaughtered in 2020. The veal head brotherhoods are small and folkloric. Republicans on both shores no longer have the taste for common gatherings. The monarchist danger is far away and the Action Française, an old memory.And then, we no longer do politics through the art of the table. The France of offal no longer has enough followers.

Read alsoEugénie Bastié: "Praise of the flesh against the neo-puritans"

And yet, in the midst of this vapid presidential campaign, a debate has emerged on social media.

Fabien Roussel, candidate for the French Communist Party, has made a declaration of love for French gastronomy, its cheeses, its wine and its meat.

He had just, without the country realizing it, committed the ultimate affront to decolonial activists and other "deconstructionists".

He was a "facho" for having dared to defend local products.

Françoise Vergès and Sandrine Rousseau would not let the threat of calf's liver with parsley and small Beaujolais ball pass them by.

“No pasaran” lamb kidneys with mustard!

In barely a decade, the reversal of values ​​is total.

The traditional Republican and Enlightenment defense dish would today be classified as a "fascist" symbol.

The struggle of ways of life surpasses the class struggle

. Here we are back in the days of Republican banquets, we redo politics by talking about gastronomy. This trend has accelerated since the municipal elections. The current deputy mayor of Marseille, Olivia Fortin likes to recall that dinners around a chicken sealed the union and therefore the dynamics of her winning list. New divisions are emerging around culinary tastes: partisans of the faux-mage against Mont d'Or aficionados, France of gluten-free against France of butter cuisine, tribe of the

smoothie

against community of the barbecue,...

It is a rallying cry against those who, on the right as on the left, want the Gribiche sauce in the name of the king's street vendors or the animalist party.

On this anniversary day, citizens, all at the table!

Your fork depends on the defense of the citizen nation.

Renaud Large

What should the Republican camp do in this great political battle for tableware?

He could recover from January 21.

Not just any January 21.

Indeed, there would be no point in commemorating Lenin's death.

Not every Republican would identify with a communist vodka celebration.

Tree

Wigan Quay

on this anniversary of the death of George Orwell would not be consensual either. Nor does "The Tory Anarchist" bring together the entire Republican arc. It is indeed the January 21 of the calf's head that must be revived, the one that brings together a syncretic pantheon ranging from Thermidor to the Fifth Republic: Robespierre and Georges Clemenceau, Georges Marchais and Léon Gambetta, Jules Ferry and André Malraux, Jean Jaurès and Philippe Seguin, Victor Hugo and Jean-Pierre Chevènement. The ceremony of the calf's head of January 21, launched in 1794, could constitute a new cement between the republicans of the two banks which moved away. It is a rallying cry against those who, on the right as on the left, want the Gribiche sauce in the name of the king's street vendors or the animalist party. On this anniversary day, citizens, all at the table!Your fork depends on the defense of the citizen nation.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2022-01-21

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