Part one. Aperitif -- A conspiracy of pleasure -- Californian cuisine -- Delicious and sometimes nutritious -- A recipe for culinary seduction -- Part two. For starters: antiquity à la Parisienne, c. 53 BC-c. AD 500 -- Cryptic culture -- 'Tis meat -- Core samples -- Caesar salad -- Figs and foie gras -- Trimalchio's fête -- Waiting for the barbarians -- The leftovers -- Fat, liverish, and winey -- Ham, mustard, and frites -- They've got attitude -- Part three. Entrées, premier service: medieval Renaissance, c. AD 500-c. 1600 -- Dark or light? -- Scallops and abbots -- Tooling up, dining out -- My kingdom for a pig -- Sense and sensibility -- Of geese and gastronomic theme parks -- Serenely seeking Taillevent -- Ancestral hunger -- Heirloom chef -- Cry fowl -- Crowd pleaser -- The roar of Rabelais -- Joie de manger -- New Rome or new Florence? -- Gullet science -- Parachute kerfuffle -- The Medici "myth" -- The party's over -- Filet mignon -- Part four. Entrées, second service: Medici à la Parisienne, early 1600s -- Bourbon Street -- Deserts and desserts -- Relais race -- Blunt is better -- Royal jackrabbits -- A profession of foie -- Pardon my French; did you say Mazzarino? -- Thicker than water -- Part five. Entrées, troisième service: Versailles à la Royale, 1638-1715 -- Versailles detour -- Order in the court! -- Calorie count -- Hot to trot -- Café break -- Blue mouths and green thumbs -- A cabbage is a cabbage is a cabbage -- Delusions of grandeur -- Le goose is cooked! -- Star suicides continued -- Eat like a king -- Part six. Entrées, quatrième service: ancienne nouvelle, 1700s -- Regency style -- On the menu -- Ancienne nouvelle -- Quintessential reading -- Voltaire revolted -- À la Royale à la carte -- The restaurants revolution -- The original see-and-be-seen scene -- Spring back, fall forward -- Part seven. Entremets, cinquième service: regime change, late 1700s-early 1800s -- Monsieur Patate -- Liberty, gluttony, fraternity! -- Pig's trotters, roast chicken, and salty blood -- A tale of two gastronomes -- Alimentary, dear Grimod! -- Sanctifying the Devil -- Something is rotten in Paris -- Savarin cake walk -- The heavyweights -- The pleasure principle -- Part eight. Hors d'oeuvres: dining out, 1800s -- Hauteur cuisine -- Chef à la king -- The holy hog -- The belly of Zola -- Carnal delights -- Nile cruise -- Part nine. Dessert: modern times, mid-1800s-late 1900s -- Grand Boulevardiers -- Potluck -- Bubble, bubble -- Boil, broil, braise, and brew -- The original wine bar -- Bistro à go-go -- Rarefied and reverential -- Prince versus king -- Curnonsky quipster extraordinaire -- Larger than -- Soft-power cuisine -- Part ten. Digestif: neo-retro-post-postmodern nouvelle d'auteur, 1970s-the present -- Passé present -- Decline and fall -- Bonne nouvelle.