Jim Chevallier

As a food historian, Jim Chevallier has appeared on "CBS Sunday Morning" and has been cited in "The New Yorker", "The Smithsonian" and the French newspapers "Le Monde", "Liberation" and "Le Figaro", among other publications. CHOICE has named his "A History of the Food of Paris: From Roast Mammoth to Steak Frites" an Outstanding Academic Title for 2019. His most recent work is "Feasting with the Franks: the First French Medieval Food".

Having first published an essay on breakfast in 18th century France (in Wagner and Hassan's "Consuming Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century") he has since contributed to the "Dictionnaire Universel du Pain" (Laffont), to the second edition of "The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, and to "Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover's Companion to New York City". He has also researched, translated and published historical works on his own.

Work on an historical novel led him to the subject of historical food, starting with the essay mentioned above and "How to Cook a Peacock", a new translation of Taillevent's "Le Viandier". Two collections based around 18th century menus and recipes followed (in the series "Apres Moi, le Dessert"). The discovery that Marie-Antoinette did NOT bring the croissant to France ultimately led him to the person who did: August Zang, also Austrian and a fascinating figure in himself. Research for this book led to further inquiries into the baguette and other French breads and ultimately to his work with Jean-Philippe de Tonnac on the "Dictionnaire Universel du Pain".

His interest in the eighteenth century has also led to research on police and criminal matters of the period, some of which is available in "The Old Regime Police Blotter I: Bloodshed, Sex and Violence in Pre-Revolutionary France" and "The Old Regime Police Blotter II: Sodomites, Tribads and Crimes Against Nature" and in an annotated reissue of an eighteenth century account of the Bastille (Simon-Nicolas-Henri Linguet's "Memoirs of the Bastille").

Books by Jim Chevallier have been acquired by a number of libraries across the United States and abroad and several of his monologues have been included in anthologies.