2 - The Emergence of Spanish Culinary Nationalism: Dr Thebussem and the King's Chef

Summary

The emergence of culinary nationalism in Spain can be traced back to a series of letters exchanged in 1876 between Mariano Pardo de Figueroa (1828–1918) and José Castro y Serrano (1829–1926). These letters, initially published in the newspaper La Ilustración Española y Americana, were later compiled to form the book La mesa moderna (1888). Writing under the pseudonyms Dr Thebussem and Un Cocinero de su Majestad (the King's Chef), the two authors discuss a number of different issues pertaining to the state of Spanish cuisine, with a particular, though not exclusive, focus on court cuisine. Initially, much attention is paid to Spanish court menus, a discussion that concentrates primarily on the fact that these menus were written in French rather than in Spanish. This point is also made by Miguel Ángel Almodóvar, who writes: ‘El doctor Thebussem empieza sus misivas quejándose del afrancesamiento que se ha generalizado en la corte y pidiendo que las listas a los convites dados por el rey de España se redacten en castellano y no en francés’ (118). The debate between Dr Thebussem and the King's Chef on this issue reveals a tension between the need to assert indigenous Spanish culinary traditions and the imperative of adapting to modern French culinary trends, which proves to be central to the whole of La mesa moderna and indeed to their push to nationalize Spanish cuisine.