Marie-Adélaïde Bridault (1806-1856), who will remain in our history as our Mère de Famille, played along and entrusted us with her secrets as a 19th-century mother.
Your favorite family (besides yours and ours)? The Bonapartes and their little Napoleon ·
Where do you have lunch as a family? At Procope, where we love to savor a calf's head on Sundays ·
What does a family snack time look like at your house? We love the Saint Honoré from the Chiboust pastry shop, which has just opened on the street of the same name ·
A real challenge with the children? Cross-stitch and embroidery calm them down ·
A recipe that can be made in no time at all? Bread, flour, water, and salt!
How do they roll you in the flour? It's been going on since 1761 ·
They make a big deal out of it when...? They have to go to bed with their grandmother ·
A favorite product "A la Mère de Famille"? The one we are going to invent ·
A gift for ALMF for its 255th birthday? Existing for 255 years would already be a real gift!
As Annie Cordy said, Cho KaKakao, if I give you chocolate, what do you give me? Who is that?
FOR A LITTLE HISTORY
It was in 1807 that the destiny of the house was sealed. Marie-Adelaïde raised her 4 children alone after the death of her husband. She was a generous, beautiful, independent woman of character, proud to be able to educate her children while running the grocery store she had helped build with her husband. True to their original aspirations, she became the sole operator of the establishment, a unique situation for a woman at that time. The woman known as "the Bridault widow" worked day and night to set up her shop just as she imagined it. She hired new apprentices, offered delicacies in keeping with the times, brought in treats from other regions of France, and even traveled herself to taste and promote sweet specialties that were often impossible to find in Paris at the time. Her independence and freedom quickly built this woman's reputation, and the house's fame soon spread beyond the neighborhood. At the same time, Paris was becoming the center of luxury and fashion, and the shop achieved acclaim thanks to Alexandre Balthazar Grimod de La Reynière, the great food critic of the era. In 1801, the seventh edition of his Almanach des gourmands praised the house of the Bridault widow. Falling under the spell of the young and beautiful widow, the critic devoted a full page to her, a unique feat, and praised "a house worthy of consumers' attention (...) bold, delicious, and perfectly managed (...) by the amiable and strong-willed Mrs. Bridault". La Mère De Famille experienced fabulous growth and officially established itself in the Parisian gastronomic landscape.
