Bohuslav Martinu's first few years in Paris were a real eye-opener for him. The Paris of the 1920s was, of course, one of the most remarkable and diverse artistic centers of all time, and Martinu encountered a wider range of music and art than he ever had before. Seemingly everything he saw and heard, from Impressionist music to jazz to avant-garde theater, made its way into his own prolific output of the time. In the year 1927 alone he created three new ballets—Le Raid merveilleux, On Tourne! (Shoot!), and Pokusení svatouská (Temptation of the Saintly Pot). The last-named became Martinu's first great success when it was premiered in Prague—by the Group of Jarmila Kröschlová conducted by Martinu's good friend Stanislav Novák—under its revised title La Revue de Cuisine (The Kitchen Revue).

In La Revue de Cuisine the dancers play kitchen utensils. As the curtain rises, the marriage of Pot and Lid is threatened by rival Twirling Stick. Pot initially succumbs to Twirling Stick's sweet talk. In Pot's absence, Dishcloth tries to strike something up with Lid, who is subsequently challenged to a duel by Broom. Pot eventually tires of Twirling Stick and wants to return to beloved Lid, but Lid has disappeared. An enormous foot suddenly appears and kicks Lid back on stage. Pot and Lid return to one another, and Twirling Stick's affections move to Dishcloth.

The ballet's music reflects Martinu's early flirtation with jazz and popular styles, which also informs later works like the Three Sketches in Modern Dance Forms for piano (1927), the orchestral piece Le Jazz (1928), and the Violin Sonata No. 1 (1930). The music of Igor Stravinsky, almost an unavoidable influence on musicians of that time, is also a significant element (Martinu had actually been accused by some of plagiarizing Stravinsky in the orchestral work Half-Time of 1924). Martinu's ensemble for La Revue de Cuisine—a chamber group made up of violin, cello, clarinet, trumpet, bassoon, and piano—inevitably calls to mind a work like Stravinsky's L'Histoire du soldat (1918).

Martinu's score features a lively opening Prologue, as well as a comically dramatic Tango (the music has its dark elements, which are undercut by the actions on stage and act as an ironic commentary on it). The jazz element comes to the fore in the Charleston, and the march that serves as a Finale reprises the opening music.

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