Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin Quotes

Burgundy makes you think of silly things;

Bordeaux makes you talk about them, and Champagne makes you do them.

To invite people to dine with us is to make ourselves responsible for their well-being for as long as they are under our roofs.

Nothing is more pleasant than to see a pretty woman, her napkin well placed under her arms, one of her hands on the table, while the other carries to her mouth, the choice piece so elegantly carved.

It has been shown as proof positive that carefully prepared chocolate is as healthful a food as it is pleasant; that it is nourishing and easily digested... that it is above all helpful to people who must do a great deal of mental work.

The pleasures of the table belong to all times and ages, to every country and every day; they go hand in hand with all our other pleasures, outlast them, and remain to console us for their loss.

The centuries last passed have also given the taste important extension;

the discovery of sugar, and its different preparations, of alcoholic liquors, of wine, ices, vanilla, tea and coffee, have given us flavors hitherto unknown.

In fine, the truffle is the very diamond of gastronomy.

Animals feed themselves; men eat; but only wise men know the art of eating

In the centre of a spacious table rose a pastry as large as a church, flanked on the north by a quarter of cold veal, on the south by an enormous ham, on the east by a monumental pile of butter, and on the west by an enormous dish of artichokes, with a hot sauce.

Dessert without cheese is like a beauty with only one eye

Those who have been too long at their labor, who have drunk too long at the cup of voluptuousness, who feel they have become temporarily inhumane, who are tormented by their families, who find life sad and love ephemeral......they should all eat chocolate and they will be comforted.

The truffle is not a positive aphrodisiac, but it can upon occasion make women tenderer and men more apt to love.

Whosoever says truffle, utters a grand word, which awakens erotic and gastronomic ideas.

The discovery of a new dish confers more happiness on humanity, than the discovery of a new star.

He who receives his friends and gives no personal attention to the meal which is being prepared for them, is not worthy of having friends.

Truffle isn't exactly aphrodisiac but under certain circumstances it tends to make women more tender and men more likable

Smell and taste are in fact but a single composite sense, whose laboratory is the mouth and its chimney the nose.

Seating themselves on the greensward, they eat while the corks fly and there is talk, laughter and merriment, and perfect freedom, for the universe is their drawing room and the sun their lamp. Besides, they have appetite, Nature's special gift, which lends to such a meal a vivacity unknown indoors, however beautiful the surroundings.

The most indispensable qualification of a cook is punctuality. The same must be said of guests.

At the time I write, the glory of the truffle has now reached its culmination.

Who would dare to say that he has been at a dinner where there was not a pièce truffée? Who has not felt his mouth water in hearing truffles a la provencale spoken of? In fine, the truffle is the very diamond of gastronomy.

The sense of smell, like a faithful counsellor, foretells its character.

I am not accustomed to take my wine in pills.

The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth, and he that is wise will not abhor them.

Gourmandise is an impassioned, rational, and habitual preference for all objects which flatter the sense of taste.

I am essentially an amateur medecin, and this to me is almost a mania.

Some dishes are of such indisputable excellence that their appearance alone is capable of arousing a level-headed man's degustatory powers. All those who, when presented with such a dish, show neither the rush of desire, nor the radiance of ecstasy, may justly be deemed unworthy of the honors of the sitting, and its related delights.

A meal without wine is like a day without sun

Those persons who suffer from indigestion, or who become drunk, are utterly ignorant of the true principles of eating and drinking.

Those from whom nature has withheld taste invented trousers.

La truffe n'est point un aphrodisiaque positif; mais elle peut, en certaines occasions, rendre les femmes plus tendres et les hommes plus aimables. The truffle is not a true aphrodisiac; but in certain circumstances it can make women more affectionate and men more attentive.

Poultry is for the cook what canvas is for a painter, or the cap of Fortunatus for a conjurer.

Gluttony is mankind's exclusive prerogative.

If one swallows a cup of chocolate only three hours after a copious lunch, everything will be perfectly digested and there will still be room for dinner.

For unknown foods, the nose acts always as a sentinal and cries. 'Who goes there?'

To claim that wines should not be changed is a heresy; the palate becomes saturated and after the third glass the best of wines arouses nothing but an obscure sensation.

A man who was fond of wine was offered some grapes at dessert after dinner. "Much obliged," said he, pushing the plate aside, "I am not accustomed to take my wine in pills."

Frying gives cooks numerous ways of concealing what appeared the day before and in a pinch facilitates sudden demands, for it takes little more time to fry a four-pound carp than to boil an egg.

Turkey is undoubtedly one of the best gifts that the New World has made to the Old.

The Spanish ladies of the New World are madly addicted to chocolate, to such a point that, not content to drink it several times each day, they even have it served to them in church.

When I need a word and do not find it in French, I select it from other tongues, and the reader has either to understand or translate me. Such is my fate.

Beasts feed. Man eats. Only the man of intellect knows how to eat.

Vegetables, which are the lowest in the scale of living things, are fed by roots, which, implanted in the native soil, select by the action of a peculiar mechanism, different subjects, which serve to increase and to nourish them.

No man under forty can be dignified with the title of gourmet.

The number of flavors is infinite, for every soluble body has a peculiar flavor, like none other.

Dear gourmands! my bowels yearn towards them as a father's toward his children. They are so good natured! They have such sparkling eyes!

Another novelty is the tea-party, an extraordinary meal in that, being offered to persons that have already dined well, it supposes neither appetite nor thirst, and has no object but distraction, no basis but delicate enjoyment.

An intelligently planned feast is like a summing up of the whole world, where each part is represented by its envoys.

I appreciate the potato only as a protection against famine, except for that, I know of nothing more eminently tasteless.

All languages had their birth, their apogee and decline.