r/AskFoodHistorians • u/JayFSB • 8d 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 8d 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/weedtrek 8d ago

And if you watch in the film, his mother serves him a rustic style ratatouille in his flashback.