Traiteur (culinary profession)

A traiteur (French pronunciation: ​[tʁɛ.tœʁ]) is a French food-seller, whose places of business were arguably the precursors of the modern restaurant.[1] Prior to the late 18th century, diners who wished to "dine out" could dine at a traiteur's, or order meals to go. The cooks and caterers guild - informally known as the traiteurs - progressively claimed the right to make any sophisticated meals, leaving inns and taverns to mainly make roast or grilled meat. As of the late seventeenth century, many offered a table d'hôte, a meal offered at a set price with no choice of dishes.[2] However both cabarets and traiteurs could also offer individual choice of dishes, despite claims to the contrary.

In modern France, the word often refers to a caterer.

Traiteur is an agent noun formed from the verb traiter ("treat"), which literally refers to the action of "treating" someone to something (for instance, a meal). The root of the verb is Latin tractare ("manage, handle"), a frequentative of trahere ("pull, draw"):[3] in ancient times, for example, Latins used the expression littera tractoria (roughly rendered as "treatment letter") to indicate a document the envoys of a prince would be given to receive food, accommodation and means of transport in the lands they would pass by, so to get a full treatment along their way.[4] This Latin root originated both French traiteur and Italian trattoria.