Did "Le cuisinier françois" change the Polish cuisine in the early-modern period? : a contribution to the analysis of the transfer of culinary patterns

The aim of this article was to establish if Le cuisinier françois, the famous cookbook published in the 17th century by de la Varenne, contributed to changing the culinary tastes of representatives of the Polish elite. For this purpose, selected collections of the inventories of libraries of Polish magnates and nobility were examined and, as a result, some few copies of the book by de la Varenne were found, in many cases connected with the personal tastes or cultural preferences of their owners. It seems, however, that in the process of transferring culinary patterns from France to Poland more essential than the presence of this book in the libraries was a permanent need to employ cooks from France in many courts of Polish magnates. They were responsible for changing the culinary tastes of their masters and strengthened the appetite for French dishes in the Polish cuisine in the early-modern era