Qu’ils mangent de la brioche

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From the MUSIC section: Qu’ils mangent de la brioche

By Drew Crosby

In Queen’s Killer Queen, a song about a high-class prostitute, Freddie Mercury sings:

She keeps Moet et Chandon
In a pretty cabinet
“Let them eat cake” she says
Just like Marie Antoinette

Clarification: Marie Antoinette wasn’t referring to cake, but rather to brioche.


Marie Antoinette

During the French Revolution, the poor rioted (se amotinaron) because -among other things- they didn’t have any bread. Upon hearing about this, the French Queen Marie Antoinette retorted with the now-famous phrase: “qu’ils mangent de la brioche” - the original French for “let them eat cake.”

In those days, brioche was more like pan Bimbo, in other words, it contained more eggs and butter than your average 18th century baguette. Brioche was quite tasty back then, but nothing like the deliciously sweet, flaky (hojaldrado) pastry we’re familiar with today.

That being the case, some people think that Marie Antoinette may have been showing kindness (amabilidad) to her subjects (súbditos) by giving them the good bread instead of the ordinary bread.

Others believe she couldn’t have cared less (le importaba un comino).

Today we use “let them eat cake” the same way we use “que les zurzan” in Spanish.