140 years ago, thinking back nostalgically to the days of his childhood, pastry chef Louis Lefèvre-Utile set out to create a product that resembled the tablecloth sewn by his grandmother. This is how the biscuit appeared petit beurre, which took the symbols of time from that napkin: the four "ears" represented the seasons, the 52 "teeth" - the weeks of a year, and the 24 holes - the hours of a day. Today the biscuit looks exactly as it did then, but probably very few know its history. As few know the history of the famous Escribà confectionary in Barcelona or the Turkish shit... Aurora Liiceanu tells us the stories of some famous sweets and the dynasties of confectioners and pastry chefs who linked their names to them. Alongside men passionate about their work like Jean-Romain Lefèvre and Antoni Escribà we will meet strong women like Pauline Utile or Jocelyne Tholoniat, who contributed to the development of their families' businesses. And because taste is associated with smell, we will make a foray into the world of perfumes, after which we will reconstruct the old smells of cities like Amsterdam, Paris or Bucharest.
Ahere we present you a fragment of the volume Sweet dynasties, recently published in the "Aurora Liiceanu" Author Series, Polirom Publishing House. From the table of contents: Pugin's chair and Balenciaga's collar • Ambition, rise, survival • Étienne Tholoniat's passion for sugar • Christian Escribà: from sensations to emotions and memory • How to conquer the world. Constant Friends • Bekir Efendi • Pauline and Reside • The Power of Scents, Combinations and Seduction • Cinderella of the Senses, Social History and Lost Scents
About Aurora Liiceanu
Aurora Liiceanu, PhD in psychology, worked in research and taught psychology at different universities in Bucharest, but also at UQAM (Canada) or EHESS (France). He is currently a senior researcher at the Institute of Philosophy and Psychology "Constantin Rădulescu-Motru" within the Romanian Academy. By the same author, Polirom Publishing House also published: The wounds of memory. Nutmeg and mountain resistance (2003, 2012), Through the curtain (2009, 2012), Four women, four stories (2010, 2011), Rendezvous with the world (2010, 2012), At taifas (2010, 2012, 2016, 2018), Life is not cut to size (2011, 2019), Crosswords (2012, 2017), Submissive or rebellious. Two versions of femininity (2013, 2019), Blood ties. Ioana's story (2013), Mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law. Who has the key? (2014, 2018), The waves, the fools, the sins. The psychologies of the Romanians (2015), Neither white nor black. X-ray of a Romanian village (1948-1998) (2015), Old love whispers in your ear. First loves (2015, 2016, 2019), She and Him. Biography of a relationship (2016, 2020), Madlen (2017), Power and blood. An Indian adventure (2018), The young woman with white hair. The Nabokov mystery (2019), Waiting for Penelope (2019), Free. About love, suffering and loss (2020), The Greta Garbo Syndrome. About celebrity and anonymity (2020), Failed relationships. Never mess with a married man (2020), The ripple effect (2021), Always alone. Parallel misfortunes (2022) and transvestites Fluid identities (2022).
Fragment from the volume Dinastii Dulci
"The legend. Grandma's napkin
Louis was the middle child of the Lefevre-Utile family. Probably, being the youngest of five children, he was spoiled and had a lot of affection. Later, after his father's death, he remembered a napkin from his childhood, which was always on the table in the morning when he drank his tea and ate his breakfast. The napkin was sewn by his grandmother, and she was the one who put it on the table.
Probably many homes had such napkins, because the women sewed and were good at needlework. It was a female specialty of domesticity.
With his characteristic keen eye and curiosity, Louis noticed that the napkin was a calendar. Fascinated by this finding, he later wanted to create something that resembled his grandmother's napkin and marked a year. Thus the biscuit was born petit beurre. He had four "ears" symbolizing the seasons, 52 "teeth" representing the weeks and 24 holes which were the 24 hours of the day. And today the biscuit petit beurre it is a symbol of time, but few who eat it know its legend and the elaborate meaning of its design.
Sure, Jean-Romain founded what became the House of Lefevre-Utile and has the credit for wanting to assert himself and prosper, but Louis, his son, schooled and traveled the world, was the most important member of the family and a pioneer of advertising. His portrait is exhibited at the history museum of the city of Nantes, set up in the castle of the Dukes of Bretagne. The museum also has a hall with a rich collection of LU objects. They come from a first donation made by Michel, son of Louis, in 1967, followed by another in 1988, and finally another donation made by Michel's grandson, also named Louis, in 2003.
Certainly his mother, Pauline, supported and helped Louis after her husband's death, as she had been by his side, for they had the same desires and the same will. Pauline and Jean-Romain passed on to their son the values and aspirations that united them, as well as the passion for the field of pastry. In the history of the Lefevre-Utile family business, Pauline is considered to be a co-founder.
Pauline was widowed quite young, so she supported her young son, Louis, with the ambition to make her and her husband's business prosper. And time, as we have seen, was on his side, because he lived to be 92 years old.
The idea of expanding the pastry business was put into practice by Louis, who inherited only 14 workers and a modest oven in which the products were made. Even though he was helped by his mother, he also asked his brother-in-law Ernest to join him, keeping the business in the family.
Louis insisted that the ingredients used, the recipes of the best biscuit and other pastries were those thought up by his father. That meant a lot of butter and simple ingredients. His aspiration was to attract the bourgeois elite.
Louis imposed the use of local products - butter, milk, honey from Bretagne, eggs from the Vendée, flour from the mills of Nantes -, to which he added exotic products, such as sugar and vanilla from the colonies, which were brought directly to the LU factory. "
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