Introduction

Abstract

This introduction is divided into four sections in order to present the theoretical and then the historical, social and cultural contexts for the history of the development of the French restaurant in London. Firstly, ‘Foodways into the Past and Present of “Eating French” in London’ considers the approaches of cultural history and of cultural studies to food and restaurant history and how these are used in the book while also defining the use of terms such as ‘cuisine’, ‘cooking’, ‘the restaurant’, and ‘cultural capital’. Secondly, ‘Frogs and Snails on the Streets of London’ and ‘The French in London: Liberty, Equality, Opportunity’ contextualise the French restaurant and French restaurateurs within the wider French migrant communities in historical and contemporary London. Finally, ‘Living, Cooking and Eating in the Neighbour’s City’ analyses ambiguities central to the concerns of this book concerning the French presence in London, ambiguities which not only manifest themselves in social, political and migration histories but also in food history and which also circulate around French food and the French restaurant in London in many different ways and settings across a century and a half.