Exotic Eating in Interwar Paris

This paper will look at the experience of exotic colonial-themed dining in Paris in the interwar period.  It will focus primarily on the "restaurant exotiques" at the Colonial Exposition of 1931 and the annual banquets of the Société d'acclimatation.   Colonial administrations hosting restaurants at the 1931 Exposition included Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Indochina, French West Africa (AOF),  Madagascar, Cameroon and Togo, French Equatorial Africa (AEF), Syria, Lebanon, Martinique, and Guadeloupe.  These colonial administrations used food, and a multi-sensory dining experience, to promote their colony to the French public.  The annual banquets of the Société d'acclimatation featured food items from around the French empire, often presented in an exoticized fashion.  This paper will examine the cultural meaning of eating foods from the colonies, including the significance of ideas of incorporation and contamination.  It will also examine the role these meals played in promoting the French imperial project and colonial food products.