Procopio Cutò
Encyclopedia
Procopio Cutò, or Francesco Procopio Cutò or Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli (9 February 1651 - 10 February 1727) was an Italian chef from Sicily
. Billing himself as a modern Procopius
, he founded in 1686 what has become the oldest extant cafe in Paris, Café Procope
. It became the first literary coffeehouse
in Paris. For over 200 years the cafe-restaurant attracted notables in the world of arts, politics, and literature.
Some sources say Procopio was born near Mount Etna
in Sicily around the town of Aci Trezza
. Other sources say he could have been born at or near Palermo, Sicily. A certificate of baptism of 10 February 1651 was found in the archives of the parish church of Sant'Ippolito in Palermo. This is one day after the birth of Procopio. The document shows his first name as Francesco and his surname as Cutò, not couteaux which means knives in French. Cutò is a typical Sicilian surname. A third possibility is that he was born near Palermo and lived in Aci Trezza
for a period of time.
Procopio received his name of dei Coltelli from the French, who misunderstood his Sicilian family name of Cutò, which is a homophone of couteaux, "knives" in French. Coltelli means "knives" in Italian. Hence, translating back into Italian gives Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli (Francesco Procopio of knives), the other name he is known by. "Francesco Procopio", the names he is often referred to as, is being used as two first names. Procopio is not his surname. Francesco was his grandfather's name.
Procopio married Marguerite Crouin in 1675 in the church of Saint Sulpice. The marriage record shows the witnesses as his parents, Onofrio Cutò and Sunday Semarqua. "Onofrio" is his father and "Sunday" is his mother. Procopio and Marguerite had eight children during their long marriage before Procopio became a widower.
when he was a boy. The snow was mixed with fruit juices and honey to make a type of sorbet. This type of "ice cream" was eaten by both rich aristocrat
s and by peasant
s. This is where Procopio got the idea of developing gelato
. The history of gelato shows Procopio as a most influential person in promoting this new food.
Procopio worked first as a fisherman like his father Onofrio. His grandfather Francesco, becoming part of Procopio's name, was also a fisherman from Aci Trezza who built gelatiere machines (ice cream makers) part time, when he was not fishing. Francesco eventually left his invention to Procopio as an inheritance. Procopio tinkered with his grandfather's "ice cream" machine making various improvements. Procopio eventually felt that he had developed a machine that would produce gelato on a large scale and decided to promote the new product. He left Sicily and went to France by way of Italy.
or Palermo on his trek to France. Procopio eventually arrived in Paris around 1670 to 1674. There he joined the guild
of the (distiller - soft drinks manufacturers) and apprenticed under the leadership of Armenian
immigrant Pascal who had a kiosk (, lemonade stand) on rue de Tournon selling refreshments, including lemonade and coffee. Pascal's attempt at such a business in Paris was not successful and he went to London in 1675, leaving the stall to Procopio who took it over, and later moved to rue des Fossés Saint Germain.
Prior to Procopio arriving in France there had been other cafés/coffee houses
there, although they were not called cafés at the time. Some were referred to as lemonade stands, meaning they sold various cold drinks including lemonade
. There had been a café/coffee house in Marseille
in 1644 before Pascal and Procope that soon became defunct, and a Levantine
had opened a coffee house in Paris in 1643, which had also failed:
It seems, however, that the Armenian immigrant Pascal was the first to call his boutique
a "café" or coffee house where one drinks coffee.
Procopio opened his extant café in 1686, and it was named Le Procope, from the French version of his name. It was referred to as an "antre" (cavern or cave) because it was so dark inside, even when there was bright sunshine outside. Procopio purchased a bath house
and had its unique fixtures removed and installed in his new café (i.e. crystal chandeliers, wall mirrors, marble tables), items now standard in modern European cafés.
Procopio had learned in about 1680 how to make a beverage of ice made of lemonade using salt to lower its temperature and keep cooler longer. Procopio had a special royal license
from King Louis XIV to sell a melange of refreshments including spices, iced drinks including "frozen waters", barley water, anice flower, orange flower, cinnamon flower, frangipan, and his improved version of the Italian "ice cream" of fruit based gelatos like lemon and orange. This gave him exclusive rights to these unique sweet and cool products from his kiosk booth at Foire Saint Germain. He soon added coffee to his refreshments' list and the kiosk became a coffeehouse
cafe. Procopio introduced the Italian "ice cream" gelato at his cafe and is one of the first to sell this new European product directly to the public. Prior to then it was reserved for royalty only. Procopio's café served it in small porcelain
bowls that resembled egg cups. He is sometimes referred to as "The Father of Italian gelato".
Procopio opened his café about the same time that the Comédie-Française
opened its doors. Conveniently, the theater was located across the street from his café. Procopio's café is considered the first true modern coffee house. The brasserie
that Procopio started with serving drinks and food is the oldest Parisian restaurant.
It is the oldest cafe in Paris that is still in business today, over 300 years later. A plaque at the establishment states that it is the world's oldest continually functioning cafe.
Procopio's café and "ice cream" establishment was one of the first in France to serve coffee and gelato. Café Procope
("Le Procope"), being across the street from Comédie Française, attracted many actors, writers, musicians, poets, philosophers, revolutionaries, statesmen, scientists, dramatists, stage artists, playwrights, literary critics and Americans to frequent the establishment. His café in the 17th century turned France into a coffee drinking society. It is considered the most famous and successful cafe in Paris. To fans of French history Procopio's business is considered the holy grail of Parisian cafes.
Procopio's café became a very popular cultural and political gathering place. Certain notable people who have frequented the café over the years have been Maximilien Robespierre
, Victor Hugo
, Paul Verlaine
, Honoré de Balzac
Pierre Beaumarchais
, Voltaire
, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
, Alain-René Lesage
, Georges Danton
, Jean-Paul Marat
, Honoré de Balzac
and Denis Diderot
. Even Benjamin Franklin
, Thomas Jefferson
, John Paul Jones
, Oscar Wilde
, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
, Napoleon Bonaparte and Voltaire
visited Procopio's cafe not only for coffee and intellectual conversations, but for gelato.
There are words above the door at Procopio's establishment that read: Café à la Voltaire. Voltaire is known to have said: "Ice cream is exquisite. What a pity it isn’t illegal."
The birthplace of the Encyclopédie
, conceived by Denis Diderot
and Jean le Rond d'Alembert
, is said to be at Procopio's café.
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
. Billing himself as a modern Procopius
Procopius
Procopius of Caesarea was a prominent Byzantine scholar from Palestine. Accompanying the general Belisarius in the wars of the Emperor Justinian I, he became the principal historian of the 6th century, writing the Wars of Justinian, the Buildings of Justinian and the celebrated Secret History...
, he founded in 1686 what has become the oldest extant cafe in Paris, Café Procope
Café Procope
Café Procope, in rue de l'Ancienne Comédie, 6th arrondissement, is called the oldest restaurant of Paris in continuous operation. It was opened in 1694 by the Sicilian Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, with a slyly subversive name adopted from the historian Procopius, whose Secret History, the...
. It became the first literary coffeehouse
Coffeehouse
A coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages. It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on...
in Paris. For over 200 years the cafe-restaurant attracted notables in the world of arts, politics, and literature.
Biography
Mount Etna
Mount Etna is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, close to Messina and Catania. It is the tallest active volcano in Europe, currently standing high, though this varies with summit eruptions; the mountain is 21 m higher than it was in 1981.. It is the highest mountain in...
in Sicily around the town of Aci Trezza
Aci Trezza
Aci Trezza is a town in Sicily, southern Italy, a frazione of the comune of Aci Castello, c. 10 km north of Catania, with a population of around 5,000 people....
. Other sources say he could have been born at or near Palermo, Sicily. A certificate of baptism of 10 February 1651 was found in the archives of the parish church of Sant'Ippolito in Palermo. This is one day after the birth of Procopio. The document shows his first name as Francesco and his surname as Cutò, not couteaux which means knives in French. Cutò is a typical Sicilian surname. A third possibility is that he was born near Palermo and lived in Aci Trezza
Aci Trezza
Aci Trezza is a town in Sicily, southern Italy, a frazione of the comune of Aci Castello, c. 10 km north of Catania, with a population of around 5,000 people....
for a period of time.
Procopio received his name of dei Coltelli from the French, who misunderstood his Sicilian family name of Cutò, which is a homophone of couteaux, "knives" in French. Coltelli means "knives" in Italian. Hence, translating back into Italian gives Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli (Francesco Procopio of knives), the other name he is known by. "Francesco Procopio", the names he is often referred to as, is being used as two first names. Procopio is not his surname. Francesco was his grandfather's name.
Procopio married Marguerite Crouin in 1675 in the church of Saint Sulpice. The marriage record shows the witnesses as his parents, Onofrio Cutò and Sunday Semarqua. "Onofrio" is his father and "Sunday" is his mother. Procopio and Marguerite had eight children during their long marriage before Procopio became a widower.
Early life
Procopio played in the snowSnow
Snow is a form of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by...
when he was a boy. The snow was mixed with fruit juices and honey to make a type of sorbet. This type of "ice cream" was eaten by both rich aristocrat
Aristocracy (class)
The aristocracy are people considered to be in the highest social class in a society which has or once had a political system of Aristocracy. Aristocrats possess hereditary titles granted by a monarch, which once granted them feudal or legal privileges, or deriving, as in Ancient Greece and India,...
s and by peasant
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...
s. This is where Procopio got the idea of developing gelato
Gelato
Gelato is the italian word for ice cream and sorbet. Italians use the word gelato to mean a sweet treat that is served frozen. Indeed, gelato, just like ice cream, is made with Milk, cream, various sugars, flavoring including fresh fruit and nut purees....
. The history of gelato shows Procopio as a most influential person in promoting this new food.
Procopio worked first as a fisherman like his father Onofrio. His grandfather Francesco, becoming part of Procopio's name, was also a fisherman from Aci Trezza who built gelatiere machines (ice cream makers) part time, when he was not fishing. Francesco eventually left his invention to Procopio as an inheritance. Procopio tinkered with his grandfather's "ice cream" machine making various improvements. Procopio eventually felt that he had developed a machine that would produce gelato on a large scale and decided to promote the new product. He left Sicily and went to France by way of Italy.
Mid life
Procopio acquired the skills to become a cook, possibly in FlorenceFlorence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
or Palermo on his trek to France. Procopio eventually arrived in Paris around 1670 to 1674. There he joined the guild
Guild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...
of the (distiller - soft drinks manufacturers) and apprenticed under the leadership of Armenian
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
immigrant Pascal who had a kiosk (, lemonade stand) on rue de Tournon selling refreshments, including lemonade and coffee. Pascal's attempt at such a business in Paris was not successful and he went to London in 1675, leaving the stall to Procopio who took it over, and later moved to rue des Fossés Saint Germain.
Prior to Procopio arriving in France there had been other cafés/coffee houses
Café
A café , also spelled cafe, in most countries refers to an establishment which focuses on serving coffee, like an American coffeehouse. In the United States, it may refer to an informal restaurant, offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches...
there, although they were not called cafés at the time. Some were referred to as lemonade stands, meaning they sold various cold drinks including lemonade
Lemonade
Lemonade is a lemon-flavored drink, typically made from lemons, water and sugar.The term can refer to three different types of beverage:...
. There had been a café/coffee house in Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
in 1644 before Pascal and Procope that soon became defunct, and a Levantine
Levantine cuisine
Levantine cuisine is the traditional cuisine of the Levant, known in Arabic as the Bilad ash-Sham. This region shared many culinary traditions under the Ottoman Empire which continue to be influential today...
had opened a coffee house in Paris in 1643, which had also failed:
It seems, however, that the Armenian immigrant Pascal was the first to call his boutique
Boutique
A boutique is a small shopping outlet, especially one that specializes in elite and fashionable items such as clothing and jewelry. The word is French for "shop", via Latin from Greek ἀποθήκη , "storehouse"....
a "café" or coffee house where one drinks coffee.
Public bathing
Public baths originated from a communal need for cleanliness. The term public may confuse some people, as some types of public baths are restricted depending on membership, gender, religious affiliation, or other reasons. As societies have changed, public baths have been replaced as private bathing...
and had its unique fixtures removed and installed in his new café (i.e. crystal chandeliers, wall mirrors, marble tables), items now standard in modern European cafés.
Procopio had learned in about 1680 how to make a beverage of ice made of lemonade using salt to lower its temperature and keep cooler longer. Procopio had a special royal license
Business license
Business licenses are permits issued by government agencies that allow individuals or companies to conduct business within the government's geographical jurisdiction. It is the authorization to start a business issued by the local government....
from King Louis XIV to sell a melange of refreshments including spices, iced drinks including "frozen waters", barley water, anice flower, orange flower, cinnamon flower, frangipan, and his improved version of the Italian "ice cream" of fruit based gelatos like lemon and orange. This gave him exclusive rights to these unique sweet and cool products from his kiosk booth at Foire Saint Germain. He soon added coffee to his refreshments' list and the kiosk became a coffeehouse
Coffeehouse
A coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages. It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on...
cafe. Procopio introduced the Italian "ice cream" gelato at his cafe and is one of the first to sell this new European product directly to the public. Prior to then it was reserved for royalty only. Procopio's café served it in small porcelain
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
bowls that resembled egg cups. He is sometimes referred to as "The Father of Italian gelato".
Procopio opened his café about the same time that the Comédie-Française
Comédie-Française
The Comédie-Française or Théâtre-Français is one of the few state theaters in France. It is the only state theater to have its own troupe of actors. It is located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris....
opened its doors. Conveniently, the theater was located across the street from his café. Procopio's café is considered the first true modern coffee house. The brasserie
Brasserie
In France and the Francophone world, a brasserie is a type of French restaurant with a relaxed, upscale setting, which serves single dishes and other meals. The word 'brasserie' is also French for "brewery" and, by extension, "the brewing business"...
that Procopio started with serving drinks and food is the oldest Parisian restaurant.
It is the oldest cafe in Paris that is still in business today, over 300 years later. A plaque at the establishment states that it is the world's oldest continually functioning cafe.
Procopio's café and "ice cream" establishment was one of the first in France to serve coffee and gelato. Café Procope
Café Procope
Café Procope, in rue de l'Ancienne Comédie, 6th arrondissement, is called the oldest restaurant of Paris in continuous operation. It was opened in 1694 by the Sicilian Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, with a slyly subversive name adopted from the historian Procopius, whose Secret History, the...
("Le Procope"), being across the street from Comédie Française, attracted many actors, writers, musicians, poets, philosophers, revolutionaries, statesmen, scientists, dramatists, stage artists, playwrights, literary critics and Americans to frequent the establishment. His café in the 17th century turned France into a coffee drinking society. It is considered the most famous and successful cafe in Paris. To fans of French history Procopio's business is considered the holy grail of Parisian cafes.
Procopio's café became a very popular cultural and political gathering place. Certain notable people who have frequented the café over the years have been Maximilien Robespierre
Maximilien Robespierre
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre is one of the best-known and most influential figures of the French Revolution. He largely dominated the Committee of Public Safety and was instrumental in the period of the Revolution commonly known as the Reign of Terror, which ended with his...
, Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
, Paul Verlaine
Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...
, Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....
Pierre Beaumarchais
Pierre Beaumarchais
Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais was a French playwright, watchmaker, inventor, musician, diplomat, fugitive, spy, publisher, arms dealer, satirist, financier, and revolutionary ....
, Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
, Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise...
, Alain-René Lesage
Alain-René Lesage
Alain-René Lesage was a French novelist and playwright. Lesage is best known for his comic novel The Devil upon Two Sticks , his comedy Turcaret , and his picaresque novel Gil Blas .-Youth and education:Claude Lesage, the father of the novelist, held the united...
, Georges Danton
Georges Danton
Georges Jacques Danton was leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution and the first President of the Committee of Public Safety. Danton's role in the onset of the Revolution has been disputed; many historians describe him as "the chief force in theoverthrow of the monarchy and the...
, Jean-Paul Marat
Jean-Paul Marat
Jean-Paul Marat , born in the Principality of Neuchâtel, was a physician, political theorist, and scientist best known for his career in France as a radical journalist and politician during the French Revolution...
, Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....
and Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer. He was a prominent person during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as co-founder and chief editor of and contributor to the Encyclopédie....
. Even Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
, Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
, John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones was a Scottish sailor and the United States' first well-known naval fighter in the American Revolutionary War. Although he made enemies among America's political elites, his actions in British waters during the Revolution earned him an international reputation which persists to...
, Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
, Napoleon Bonaparte and Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
visited Procopio's cafe not only for coffee and intellectual conversations, but for gelato.
There are words above the door at Procopio's establishment that read: Café à la Voltaire. Voltaire is known to have said: "Ice cream is exquisite. What a pity it isn’t illegal."
The birthplace of the Encyclopédie
Encyclopédie
Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers was a general encyclopedia published in France between 1751 and 1772, with later supplements, revised editions, and translations. It was edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert...
, conceived by Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer. He was a prominent person during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as co-founder and chief editor of and contributor to the Encyclopédie....
and Jean le Rond d'Alembert
Jean le Rond d'Alembert
Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert was a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. He was also co-editor with Denis Diderot of the Encyclopédie...
, is said to be at Procopio's café.