PHOTO: DEA/G. DAGLI ORTI/GETTY


sprouts, dressed in olive oil and tarragon vinegar.


In later years Jefferson wrote to James Madison that at Monticello he was able to find “happiness in the lap and love of my family, in the society of my neighbors and my books, in the wholesome occupations of my farms and my affairs, in an interest or affection in every bud that opens, in every breath that blows around me, in an entire freedom of rest, of motion, of thought.”


French Bred


In June 1779, Jefferson succeeded Patrick Henry as wartime governor of Virginia. But in 1781 when British troops burned Richmond and Jefferson was forced to flee, he swore off politics (“politics is a subject I never loved and now hate,” he later wrote to John Adams). He retired to Monticello to resume his life of “unchequered happiness” as husband to Martha, his wife of nine years, who had borne him six children.


Unfortunately, Martha Jefferson died in 1782, and in order to distract himself from his grief at this loss, Jefferson decided to return to politics. In 1784, he agreed go to Paris as ambassador to the court of Louis XVI, where he joined John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, who had already worked as diplomats in Europe for several years.


Jefferson had not forgotten his love of French food. When he set sail from Boston with his daughter Patsy, he also brought his nineteen-year-old slave James Hemings for the “particu- lar purpose” of having him master the art of French cooking. As soon as Jefferson took up residence in a fashionable quarter of Paris, he arranged for Hemings’ apprenticeship with Monsieur Combeaux, the chef who was hired to cater Jefferson’s personal meals. Warming to his new ambassadorial role, Jefferson made the rounds of dinners and parties, frequently dining with Franklin (whose waistline had expanded considerably due to his epicurean repasts), John and Abigail Adams, and John Paul Jones. In 1785, Adams was assigned to a new post in England, and Franklin,


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This eighteenth-century French painting of an oyster lunch portrays the luxurious eating habits of the elegant classes during the time that Jefferson was ambassador to France.


of the


now eighty, retired, leaving Jefferson the sole American minister to France. He moved into the sumptuous Hôtel de Langeac on the Champs-Elysées, elevating his lifestyle with servants, stables, a chariot, and a large garden where he grew “Indian corn for the use of my own table, to eat green in our manner.”


Although Patrick Henry accused him of having become so “Frenchified” that he “abjured his native victuals,” Jefferson was an avid promoter of American fare to his Parisian friends. Jefferson wrote to Nicholas Lewis, a friend in Virginia, asking him to send seeds for sweet potato, cantaloupe, and “Homony corn.” From James Madison, Jefferson requested a barrel of American apples, as well as cran- berries, “paccans” (pecans), and Virginia hams (“better than any to be had on this side of the Atlantic”). Although Jefferson was at first


judged rigid and aloof by French society (the Parisian elite had been smitten with the charming and witty


Franklin), it wasn’t long before the self-proclaimed “savage of the moun- tains of America” became a much- sought-after dinner guest at the homes of the rich and privileged, regularly savoring delicate sauces and rich desserts from the kitchens of the aristocracy. French cooking, Jefferson declared, outshone that of America because “with good taste [it] unite[s] temperance.” It was said that Jeffer- son, ever the passionate gourmet, spent more time copying down French recipes than he did writing treaties. In both 1787 and 1788, Jefferson


left Paris for several months at a time in order to travel around Europe. He began his 1787 journey by traveling south along the course of the River Seine in an unpretentious carriage with a single hired servant, carefully taking notes on agriculture and local culinary customs. During this journey south, Jefferson wrote: “The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture, especially a bread grain. Next


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