'The earliest recipe of the Bûche de Noël shows up in Pierre Lacam’s 1898 Le memorial historique et géographique de la pâtisserie. The earliest mention however is a couple of years earlier in Alfred Suzanne’s 1894 La cuisine anglaise et la pâtisserie where he notes in passing that it is (was?) the specialty of a certain Ozanne, presumably his friend Achille Ozanne (1846-1898). Of course we have no idea of what this looked like. An article in the French newspaper Figaro adds an interesting tidbit (see Pierre Leonforte, “La bûche de Noël : une histoire en dents de scie,” Figaro, 17 December 2000): according to Stéphane Bonnat, of chocolatier Félix Bonnat her great grandfather’s recipe collection from 1884 contains a recipe for a roll cake make with chocolate ganache. Admittedly she makes no claim to this being the first bûche de Noël.
'One of the famous stories about this French dessert is associated with Napoleon Bonaparte of France. He issued a proclamation, as per which, the people of Paris were ordered to close the chimneys of their houses, during winters. It was thought that entry of cold air into the houses was causing spread of illnesses and the proclamation was aimed at prevention of such diseases. It was during this time that Buche de Noel or yule log cake was invented in Paris. As use of hearths was prohibited, they needed some sort of traditional symbol that can be enjoyed with family and friends during the festive season that falls in winter. Thus, this cake became a symbolic substitution around which the family could gather for storytelling and other holiday activities.
'It makes sense that the cake, like so many other Christmas traditions (think Santa, decorated Christmas trees, Christmas cards, etc) dates to the Victorian era, to a time of genteel, bourgeois domesticity. In France, in particular, a certain romantic image of peasant traditions had become part of the story the French told themselves about themselves and while the average Parisian bourgeois could hardly be expected to hoist logs into their 4th floor apartment, they could at least show solidarity for their country cousins by picking up a more manageable bûche at the local pâtisserie. That the result was a little kitsch fit the middle class sensibility too.' -- collaged
_______________
This year's candidates
_______________
Christophe Michalak
Tout feu tout flamme 160€
90€
____
Lenôtre
Buche de Jean-Michel Wilmotte 145€
Buche de Lacoste 55€
_____
Ladurée
Bûche de Noël Marie-Antoinette 88€
________
Pierre Hermé
185€
___________
Pierre Marcolini
78€
__________
Hotel de Crillon
85€
75€
____
Chanel
Le Sac de Mademoiselle 140
__________
Julien Merceron
A la mère de famille 38 €
_____
Hediard
The Kremlin's clock 64€
__________
Pain de Sucre
Bûche Empereur 64€
__________
Patrick Roger
Le Sapin 35€
_____________
Christophe Roussel
Planche de Noisette 33€
Red Christmas 33€
_________________
Thierry Marx/Pierre Mathieu
118€
__________
L'Hotel le Burgundy
76€
____
Raimo
Raimo d'Or 32€
____________
Sébastien Gaudard
36€
64€
_________
Hugo & Victor
90€
78€
______
Fauchon
120€
___________
Jean Paul Hévin
Bûche aux chenets49€
Bûche pétard38€
Bûche allumette 49€
Centre de table118€
___________
Café Pouchkine
Bûche Poème de Noël 45€
_____________
Emmanuel Hamon
Bûche Nivelo 68€
Bûche Ambra 55€
________________
Hôtel Fouquet’s Barrière
Bûche traîneau 38€
___
Plush
32€
____________
Arnaud Delmontel
40€
______________
Hotel du Ritz
Ritzy bear 80€
_________________________
Montblanc/Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme
90€
________
Verve & Elan
60€
__________________
Château de la Chèvre d’Or
Bûche bougie 120€
*
p.s. Hey. So, there are the Buche candidates for this year. As usual, I will probably buy two of them. One to eat with friends before they leave for their Xmas getaways, and one to eat on Xmas itself with Yury. I'm still deciding re: the chosen two. Any suggestions? Which one or two of them would you buy and eat if you were in Paris this Xmas and shared my Buche fetish? ** Alter Clef Records, Greetings, Mr. Hudson. Yes, today is the debut date of both your latest masterwork and Mr. Walker's. How interesting is that? I can't wait to hear yours. I've heard Mr. Walker's, and ... whoa! Excellent about the show-shaped premiere? Video of it anywhere? Surely. My new novel is ... progressing, I guess. Let's leave it at that. January, sure. But I'll be in and out of town three times that month to do gigs, so let me know when you're planning to arrive. Love, me. ** Kiddiepunk, Hey. Those are the Buches. What do you think? I'll call you this afternoon to check in and make some seeing you/ doing stuff plans. ** Sanatorium, Hey there! Very nice to see you! I have to go check out those more impossible sign-in things of which you and everyone keeps speaking. I have a backstage pass to the blog, so I miss out on a lot of the lack of fun. ** Grant Scicluna, Hi, Grant! I thought you might like 'Bande a Part', cool, yes, high five. I haven't seen that particular Haneke film. Seems like I should, but not necessarily in a terrible rush? 'Amour' is pretty great. Have you seen that yet? I haven't watched a lot. Uh, recently-ish, the new James Benning film 'The Second Cabin' and 'Take Shelter' and Ozu's 'Late Autumn' 'cos I was putting together an Ozu post. I think that's it. My weekend was okay. Very cold here. - 2 degrees at times. How was yours? ** David Ehrenstein, Oh, your event is tonight! So wish I could be there, obviously and for sure! Everyone, if you're in LA today, it is highly advised that you make your way to Book Soup tonight to watch/listen as David Ehrenstein reads from and signs his new and great book 'Masters of Cinema: Roman Polanski'. It's at 7 pm, and here's all the info you need. Be there, seriously. Break every leg tonight, Mr. E., and let us know how it went. ** L@rstonovich, Hey, Larsty! Nice. ** Cobaltfram, Yes, very complicated about George's brother. Hugely complicated. If I don't try to get in touch with him, I'll regret it for the rest of my life, so I guess it's more a matter of when. I did start easing back into the novel this weekend. Man, it will need so much editing if it's going to work at all. I think, at best, I have about a 50% chance of making it work, which is quite discouraging, but I'm going to at least finish the first draft and then see. You like 'KtS.' Interesting. I read somewhere that it got an F score in the exit poll of theater goers, which I guess is a rare, disastrous response. Maybe I'll check it out when it inevitably gets here. As per your question: Sure, that happens to me a lot. Pretty much whenever I write something, I always try to write something that's beyond my known abilities. Sometimes that works, and my work grows, and sometimes it turns out that I was asking for too much. I guess when that happens, I usually try to scale the experiment back a little to see if I can find a happy medium between the original ambition and the limits of what I can do. I think that mostly works, and sometimes even the compromised version constitutes an advancement. But, sure, sometimes it's hopeless. So, I say try tuning it down a little and see what happens. Or, if you can leave a hole that won't be noticeable as a hole to readers, that'll work, obviously. It's kind of hard to give clear advice to you without knowing the context and the specific problem, but, generally, I think salvage jobs are probably the best option unless the section is just completely out of your reach. Oh, my books always have parts where I had to scale back my ambitions. I don't think you would get much from reading them because I did my best to make the final forms read as entirely intentional. I'm facing that dilemma big time with the George novel right now. Trying to write a personal, emotional book without employing the easy tricks of lyricism and an elegiac tone and stuff is turning out to be extremely hard, i.e. to write in a way that will be seductive and compelling to anyone else, I mean. Anyway, well, the central 'cloud bridge' section of 'God Jr.' was originally supposed to do a lot more than it does, but it works okay, and I guess the same goes for the 'radio talk show' section of 'Period', but, again, I doubt you would be able to see what's missing re: my original goal because I refined what's there to hide what got lost. Anyway, best of luck with your dilemma, and what are you deciding to do to fix the problem? ** Sypha, Well, sex is sort of like if the area between your legs could sneeze, so maybe you'd dig it, ha ha. ** Jax, Thanks for the eye advice. Yeah, I'll try that. I'm a bit nerve-wracked by it. Ugh. Good weekend? ** Jebus, Hey there! How's it? You get the Walker LP tomorrow. I think we over here get it today, although I already have it. I think you will not be disappointed by it in any respect whatsoever. Maybe. That's my guess. ** SwAmPeX, Hey! Excellent to see you! So glad you dug the post. You good? What's going on? ** Billy Lloyd, Hey. Yeah, great stuff. Your stuff, I mean. Was playing/ looping the songs this weekend. Exciting about the zine/EP. A physical zine/product or an eZine? I want to get it when it's ready, so let me know where and how, if you don't mind. That first slave's visuals had a 'scanned from a fashion mag' vibe about them, the middle pic in particular, like you sort of said. I guess we'll never know. I guess it's a puzzle. I guess puzzles can be cool. I guess a puzzle wouldn't make for a very good slave? Wow, I don't know. Good morning, if it's morning! ** _Black_Acrylic, The YnY crew is a bunch of tiny people? Except for you, I mean. That's kind of a nice idea. So they're like Santa's elves, and you would be Santa by default, I guess. Hope the Xmas dinner was festive. ** Wolf, Oh, gosh, thank you! It was quite the big hit! Ha ha, you are chuffed, or you were. Are you in London now? Are you more chuffed or less? Must be more for at least the first while. Tell me. ** Esther Planas, Hi, Esther!!! It's a boon and joy and a shitload of fresh air to see you, my pal! You're in Colombia, wow, and going to Puerto Rico, wow again. Never been to either place. That performance project looks really cool. What are you doing in it? Or, I mean, are you performing too? Can I find out if I search the website? I'll try. Lovely to see you! Have a great time and a very safe trip! ** Postitbreakup, Hi, Josh. Oh, yeah, marvelous email, and it's all squared away, as I think I told you in a consequent email. Thank you tons, buddy! ** Monee Zowee, Yay! You made it! Blogger stopped acting like a fascist bodyguard! I've missed you! Yes, my jetlag seems to have finally died, and I seem to be doing okay. What's the novel you're translating? What's the other stuff you're doing? Lots of love from me! ** James, Hi, James! Yes, I think I'm de-lagged at long last. Yes, I did get the email. Thank you so much! In fact, the thing you sent will appear here on December 22nd, as per your request. It's great, and I'm thrilled and grateful to you, sir. I hope you're doing well. How is everything? ** Oliver, Hi, Oliver! Great to see you, man! How are your holidays shaping up? Mine aren't yet, but I suppose holidays always form a shape eventually? ** Bill, Hi, B. Thanks for the link to the podcast. It's bookmarked and on my agenda for later. That photo show does look very intriguing. I'm going to google and see if I can see more works by Martin Sorrondeguy. Hold on. Oh, yes, I was successful. I'll pore later. It's raining here too. It was - 2 degrees here yesterday. Winter is winter. ** Steevee, Anything's possible re: Aimee Mann. You might be amazed at some of the famous people who read this blog regularly, or I am. Haven't heard the X-TG album yet, no. I will. ** Tender prey, Hi, Marc! Thank you so, so much for the amazing post! It was fucking gorgeous, and the great feedback is the proof. I'm glad your deadlines are work-related, of course, and to hear that you're excited. I'm just sort of carefully edging into writing again, and I guess I'll be at it full-time again this week. Obviously, I'm so sorry to hear about the close deaths. Yes, love for those who are both beloved and dead is a very intense love. What happens to love when it can't be expressed to the beloved is pretty furious. I understand. ** Alan, Hi, Alan! Very interesting about the Bond villain. Everyone, courtesy of Alan, and re: the Brutalist post, and very interesting, and in Alan words: 'Did you know one of the leaders of the Brutalist movement was the inspiration for (and namesake of) a James Bond villain?' ** JoeM, Hi, Joe! Very, very interesting. ** Paul Curran, Hi, Paul. I'm post-lag, thank you. It was way, extremely cold here yesterday. Almost spookily so. Now it's raining and bleah and 11 degrees. And, where you are, it's/you're ... ? ** 5STRINGS, With your parents? That's all right, right? Parents can be good things to have. Much better to have them than roadkill. Later gator to that unappreciative schmuck. Butor, cool, pass along your big thoughts. Don't freak out, man! Or only in the good way! ** Flit, Hi. Excellent Brutalist thoughts and info and add, pal. Oh, sure, my blog can handle 560 width, no problem. I just have this habit of cutting vids down to 400 so they'll be the same width as the photos for some strange, probably uptight reason. But, yes, 560, go for it! Cut, paste, etc. sounds awesome. You're so nice. Thank you. I'm your humble everything. ** Misanthrope, Hi, G. White is the Greatest Gay Person Ever? Who voted him into that spot? Oh, wait, I think I can guess. Wait, you mean Edmund White. I thought you meant Dan White, the guy who killed Harvey Milk. Oh, okay, makes a little more sense, sort of. I think I saw something in my mailbox, if that's what you're referring to, and, if so, you are both a gentleman and the Greatest Gay Person Ever. I'm saving the last 'Twilight' film for a jet flight where it belongs. ** E., Hi, E! E, listen , you were so incredibly right about Saskia. That album is insanely good, and, yeah, that first track is something else. I owe you. I'm going to see if there's enough on her out there to make a post about her even, and, if so, you bet. So, yeah, I owe you, like I said. How was your weekend, may I ask? ** Chris Cochrane, Bob Gluck read, nice. You flirted with Edmund White? Uh, whoa, so, uh, yeah, to each his own, buddy boy, and I mean that from the bottom of my anarchist heart. Interesting. I'm glad Ed is healthy enough now to be up and about. I'm okay. Rain and cold and rain and cold, but Paris is underneath that, so it could be worse. Your birthday's coming? What are going to do? Do something big and magical. Seriously. ** Lord_s, Morning to you, Lord. Yeah, your Earth take is basically my take. I've never seen them live, though. They cancelled on their recent Sunn0)))/Earth/Mika Vaino Paris gig. As did Mika Vaino. As did Attila. Kind of a wash out. South Pasadena and Long Beach are interesting poles from which to experience LA. If you like LA from those vantage points, then you must definitely like it. It's great to go there in the winter, obviously. I'm going to get there before winter dies too. Maybe we'll intersect. Would be cool. ** Pascal, Hi, P. It's freezing and wet at the same time here. Charming combo. I'm trying to not rush off anywhere if I can help it. 'IC', yes, superb, and I think you'll find 'L'Abbe C' pretty swell too, hopefully. I don't know that Sam Riviere book. Let me know if I should. Happy December to you! ** Bollo, Hi, J. There are the Buches. What do you think? Ugh, ouch, about your back. Take it easy, man, Jesus. My eye is still acting weirdly psychedelic. Spooky. Aw, well, thanks about 'Wrong'. You're very kind. I like maybe four or five things in there a fair amount, I guess. So, yeah, have a swell day of Buche perusing, and chill on the ambitious back movements, okay? ** Okay. I intro'd the Buches already, so I will just take my leave now. See you tomorrow.