Reconstruction
On the evening of 20 September 2023, President Emmanuel Macron and Brigitte Macron received King Charles III and Queen Camilla for a state banquet in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. It concluded the first day of the royal couple’s three-day French state visit, originally planned for March but postponed during protests over French pension reform. Roughly 160 political, diplomatic, cultural and business guests attended. Photographs show them seated at a single table extending approximately 62 metres through the gilded gallery.
The meal was conceived as a display of French culinary craft and Franco-British friendship rather than an imitation of an ancien-régime feast. Anne-Sophie Pic prepared the opening course: blue lobster and creel-caught crab with fresh almonds and costmary, an aromatic herb sometimes misleadingly translated as “mint-coconut.” Yannick Alléno supplied the main course, Bresse poultry scented with corn and accompanied by a gratin of porcini mushrooms. Contemporary accounts further described the poultry as poached and marinated with Champagne, although no complete production recipe was published.
Cheese made the diplomatic symbolism particularly explicit. Affineur Bernard Antony selected mature Comté from France alongside Stichelton, a raw-milk blue cheese made in Nottinghamshire. Their pairing placed two distinctive regional traditions on the same plate. Pierre Hermé concluded the meal with a reworked Ispahan, his rose, raspberry and lychee composition. Reports describe cooked and raw raspberries, lychee pieces, rose-and-lychee sorbet, raspberry sorbet and a thin macaron element rather than merely the familiar filled macaron sold in pastry shops.
Service and setting carried messages alongside the food. The Élysée staff used historic Sèvres porcelain plates decorated with birds, described by Versailles as the oldest Élysée service of its kind. President Macron’s toast presented Versailles as a former centre of royal art that the French Republic had repurposed as a setting for diplomatic friendship. Charles, speaking mostly in French, connected the banquet to the approaching 120th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale and called for renewed cooperation between the two countries.
This was therefore both hospitality and political theatre. Protected-origin poultry and cheese, artisan British blue cheese, celebrated chefs, heritage tableware and a globally recognized pastry were assembled into a controlled narrative of place, skill and alliance. In a food era dominated by standardized manufacturing and international distribution, the dinner illustrates a surviving countercurrent: governments still use named producers, regional provenance, manual service and highly individualized dishes to communicate status and national identity. Its direct legacy is not a household recipe but a well-documented example of twenty-first-century culinary diplomacy.
Historical context
Charles III had been king for just over a year and had been crowned on 6 May 2023. His September journey was his first state visit to France as monarch, although Germany had become his first outward state visit after the original March French program was postponed. France was hosting the 2023 Rugby World Cup, while the official diplomatic agenda emphasized the war in Ukraine, security, migration, biodiversity and climate finance. Versailles, no longer a seat of government, continued to function as a carefully selected ceremonial setting: the September banquet was its first royal reception in the Hall of Mirrors since a dinner for the king of Sweden on 16 June 1980.
Evidence
Written sources
StrongContemporary records from the French presidency and Royal Household document the date, hosts, honorees, diplomatic purpose and speeches.
Iconographic
StrongOfficial and press photographs directly document the Hall of Mirrors setting, long banquet table, participants, tableware and formal service.
Food identification
StrongContemporary menu reporting consistently identifies blue lobster and crab, Bresse poultry, porcini gratin, Comté, Stichelton and Pierre Hermé’s Ispahan.
Dating
StrongOfficial French and British records date the banquet to 20 September 2023.
Preparation method
ModeratePrincipal components and several culinary treatments were reported, but no complete kitchen records or standardized recipes were released. Details such as the poultry’s Champagne marinade appear in contemporary reporting rather than a published production recipe.
Geographic attribution
StrongThe banquet location is directly documented as the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles; named regional products have established French or British origins.
Historical interpretation
ProbableThe dinner’s role in Franco-British diplomacy is explicit in official speeches. Interpretation of individual foods as symbols rests on their deliberate French-British pairing and contemporary institutional commentary.
Sources
- 1.Présidence de la République française (2023). State Visit of His Majesty King Charles III and Queen Camilla. Élysée. www.elysee.fr/en/emmanuel-macron/2023/09/21/statHistorical primary source
- 2.King Charles III (2023). The King's speech during the State Banquet at Versailles. The Royal Family. www.royal.uk/French-state-banquetHistorical primary source
- 3.Catherine Pégard (2023). Un menu républicain pour une table royale. Les Carnets de Versailles. www.lescarnetsdeversailles.fr/2023/09/un-menu-reHistorical primary source
- 4.Sylvie Corbet (2023). France rolls out the red carpet for King Charles III’s state visit. Associated Press. apnews.com/article/france-uk-king-charles-iii-viModern synthesis
- 5.Reuters (2023). Du fromage anglais au menu du dîner de Versailles en l'honneur du roi Charles. Reuters, republished by La Tribune. www.latribune.fr/depeches/reuters/KBN30P1AW/du-fModern synthesis
