The “Ugly” Queen

When Catherine ‘de Medici became Queen of France, she brought to her new Country Florentine cooks, just to “feel home”. It is said that she was so superstitious that during a banquet in 1549 she made the cooks prepare a food in a way that everything could be divided into three, the perfect number: 33 roe deer roasts, 33 hares, 6 pigs, 66 boilers, 66 pheasants, 3 bowls of beans, 3 bowls of peas, 12 dozens of artichokes.
One of the rules of the English etiquette was born in France during Catherine’s reign. It is said that the rule of putting the prongs of the fork down facing comes from what Mary Stuart, the Queen’s daughter in law, used to do. Mary hated her mother in law, so every time she ate, she used to put the fork that way in order not to see the Medicean blazon.
As it might be better known, the Florentine cooks who worked for the Queen in France created many recipes, such as cream puffs, béchamel sauce or even crepes with ricotta and vegetables.

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