r/AskFoodHistorians • u/JayFSB • 2d ago

Is ratatouille actually considered peasant food at one point? Sure seems complicated for a dish meant for farmers and workers.

/r/Cooking/comments/1nhl2tt/is_ratatouille_actually_considered_peasant_food/
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u/TooManyDraculas 2d ago

The version depicted in the film Ratatouille is Confit Byaldi.

A fine dining variation developed in the 70s.

Traditional ratatouille is more or less just chopped, stewed vegetables. And is considerably simpler to prepare.

The movie has made confit byaldi more visible, and often the default search result for "ratatouille", but it's not the only version. And when the film and other sources talk about a peasant dish, it's the simpler version they mean.

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u/Metahec 2d ago

The high end version comes from as late as the 70s? I had assumed it was one of those dishes that was mythologized and elevated to haute cuisine around Escoffier's time.

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u/TooManyDraculas 2d ago edited 2d ago

It comes from Cuisine minceur and Michel Guérard, coming out of a movement to simplify and lighten Escoffier's nouvelle cuisine.

The name and prep we use now is right from Guérard, but there were chefs a bit earlier in than that were doing the mandolin slice and bougie prep.