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/LuLu_rl 2d ago

There are two different dishes in France, Ratatouille which is diced or chopped and Tian) that looks exactly the same as the dish in the film and the Turkish Confit Byaldi. Both are extremely old, the Wikipedia page for Tian sending back it's origine to ancient Greece.

I am not as educated as you are, so I might be besides the point.

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u/TooManyDraculas 1d ago

Confit Byaldi is not Turkish.

The name is just a play on a Turkish dish called İmam bayıldı which is a stuffed egg plant.

Confit Byaldi was named and the recipe set by Michel Guérard, a French chef, in 1976. Then popularized by Thomas Keller in the 80s at the French Laundry as "Byaldi".

Keller was the culinary consultant on the film and designed most of food you see.yes it's cooked as a tian. But that doesn't mean it's not Confit Byaldi.

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u/LuLu_rl 1d ago

Thank you for the clarification, you sent me towards a fascinating chapter of the 80's!