Podcasts · Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

Missing Fish and Fatal Feasts: Ritual and Ruin at the Sun King’s Table

· 43 min · S6 E39

Episode Missing Fish and Fatal Feasts: Ritual and Ruin at the Sun King’s Table

0:00 42:46

In the gilded court of Louis XIV, 17th Century France, manners are everything. Where to sit, how to eat, what to wear - any misstep is costly. No one knows this better than François Vatel, the greatest party planner in all of France. Tonight, Vatel must deliver the ultimate banquet, a chance for his master to rise through the ranks and win the king's favor. But where there is opportunity there is danger, and even one mistake could prove deadly.

WARNING: This episode discusses death by suicide. If you are suffering emotional distress or having suicidal thoughts, support is available - for example, from the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the US, or the Samaritans in the UK on 116 123

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Transcript

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