French Restaurants in Nineteenth-century Australia: a Preliminary Review, Part 1

Author: BARBARA SANTICH
The French Australian Review 76 (Australian Winter 2024): 4-26.
https://doi.org/10.62586/MNVD1568

French restaurants in Australian colonies in the nineteenth century were established in an attempt to offer an alternative to traditional English forms of hospitality by transferring a model developed in eighteenth-century Paris. Liquor licensing regulations initially imposed some limitations but the introduction of colonial wine licences helped promote both the French tradition of serving wine with meals and the consumption of colonial wine. Early restaurant ventures in New South Wales were often ambitious though ultimately unsuccessful, but in the second half of the century restaurateurs such as Timothie Cheval, Octave Desneux and Gaston Liévain succeeded in promoting an authentic French style of hospitality, though menus were often obliged to make concessions to English tastes.

Keywords: Australia, New South Wales, French restaurants, restaurants, cafes, liquor licensing