The Physiology of Taste; Or, Transcendental Gastronomy

The previous reviewer has it exactly right. This is a book of meditations on the pleasures of food. It is written by a man in whose company it would have been a great pleasure to eat and drink. It is written for people who have the capacity to taste and rejoice in tasting. It is translated by the most original food writer of the 20th Century, and illustrated (in my edition) by the estimable Wayne Thiebaud. What's the point of a book of meditations? In this case, it's to provoke your appetite and deepen your pleasures in satisfying that appetite. I recommend a page or two after dinner, at least three nights a week and washed down with good red wine. Lynn Hoffman author ofThe New Short Course in Wine

NOTE: This review refers to ISBN 1-58243-103-5. This is a reprint edition of the original Heritage Press publication, in 1949, of M.F.K. Fisher's translation of Brillat-Savarin. As issued, the book is simply titled "The Physiology of Taste, or, Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy." Now, with those details out of the way, let me make bold to say that this is one of the world's great books! When I first began reading it, I became annoyed: "Who is this Frenchman, who thinks he can write about, and tell me about, everything under the sun?" For the book contains many, many digressions. I have seen it referred to as a "cookbook," which is wildly wrong -- it is MEANT to be a book about food and the art of cooking food. And no less about the art of eating food. But the many digressions are the key to this wonderful book. A brief biography: born in 1755, trained as a lawyer, Brillat-Savarin became the mayor of his home town, Belley. But he fled France at the time of the Revolution, and went to America. After his brief exile, he returned to Paris and served as a judge in the court of appeals. He spent the last twenty-five years of his life living peacefully, and writing this book. Did he know that he was creating a masterpiece? Interesting question! As his intrepid translator, M.F.K. Fisher comments, this seems to be a book which will last more than a century or two. It may well live for thousands of years. WHY? Because of the personality and intelligence of the author! Just like Fisher, I wish that I had been one of his friends! And, when push comes to shove, one purpose of a library is to provide an army of friends, hopefully intelligent, gentle, serene, and perceptive. Brillat-Savarin is all of these. One sample discussion that I can recall from memory is about the ability of various men to enjoy tasty food. And Brillat-Savarin puts his point simply and unforgettably: there are men born blind, and men born lame, and men born deaf. On the other hand, there are men born with sight, men born with normal mobility, and men who can hear. In the same way, some men are born with an inability to appreciate delicious food, due to a lack of taste-buds on the tongue or whatever, BUT there are men who are born loving tasty food -- and I am writing my book about and for these people! :-) Be careful about buying this book! It may wind up on your nightstand for a long, long, time. Fine wine indeed, from a truly vintage mind -- and a truly fine translator. Also beware: it may make you hungry! :-)

You cannot say you love gastronomy without having ever read this book!

The standard edition of this work in the US, and a lively one. Jean-Anthelme de Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826) is known for this book and for pithy maxims like "Adam and Eve sold themselves for an apple. What would they have done for a truffled fowl?" (That of course in the days when the truffles that most people heard of were real ones, not chocolate candies that look like them; and also when the real ones were much more plentiful and less expensive.) Memorable are the wonderful anecdotes of the kindly old priest and his "austere" meatless menu ("The Curé's Omelet," with "theoretical notes" afterwards) and of Brillat's scheme at a country inn to enhance a humble dish. This wide-ranging book established its author as an original and knowledgeable voice in French food writing, to be compared with Carême and Grimod de la Reynière.Brillat-Savarin, among other roles, was the basis of Marcell Rouff's _The Passionate Epicure,_ a fictional book gently combining food and sex (naturally, as a friend of mine remarked, since it's French), which was widely read in English when the translation appeared in 1962. Marcella Hazan and (I believe) Julia Child cited it in their cookbooks. In his preface to the 1962 Rouff, Lawrence Durrell (himself a fashionable author at that time) explained that many in the Brillat-Savarin family "died at the dinner table, fork in hand" and that Brillat's sister Pierrette, two months before her hundredth birthday, spoke at table what are to food fanatics easily the most famous last words ever: "Vite! Apportez-moi le dessert -- je sens que je vais passer!" Fisher's translation and notes are a lively part of this edition of Brillat-Savarin (happily reprinted recently). Some booksellers offer newer editions by different English translators; I don't know why. This semi-scholarly translation and editing, executed in France during the post-war period described in her autobiographical _Two Towns in Provence,_ was the work that established Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher among US gastronomic writers. Her later status as Official Food Celebrity encouraged journalists to cite her automatically (whether they had read her work or not), but at least this time, publicity and merit coincide.

Brillat-Savarin makes you feel good about feeling good about food! Especially entertaining are the chapters entitled "On Obesity" and "On Thinness." Interesting to note that the chapter "On the Treatment of Obesity" in this 1825 treatise entails a low-carbohydrate diet. Maybe it's true that there really is nothing new under the sun!