The Physiology of Taste by Brillat Savarin (suggested reading .TXT) 📕

equal, those who know how to eat, are ten years

younger than those ignorant of that science.

 

Painters and sculptors are well aware of this, for they never

represent those to whom abstinence is a matter of duty, such as

anchorites and misers, except as pale, thin, and wrinkled.

 

THE EFFECTS OF GOURMANDISE ON SOCIABILITY.

 

Gourmandise is one of the principle bonds of society. It gradually

extends that spirit of conviviality, which every day unites

different professions, mingles them together, and diminishes the

angles of conviviality.

 

This it is, which induces every amphitryon to receive his guests

well, and also excites the gratitude of the latter when they see

themselves well taken care of: here is the place to reprobate

those stupid masticators, who with the most guilty indifference to

the greatest luxuries, and who with sacrilegious indifference

inhale the odorous perfume of nectar.

 

GENERAL LAW.—Every display of high intelligence, makes explicit

praise necessary. Delicate praise is necessary, wherever a wish to

please is evident.

 

INFLUENCE OF GOURMANDISE ON CONJUGAL HAPPINESS.

 

When gourmandise is shared with another, it has the greatest

influence on conjugal happiness.

 

A gourmand couple have at least once a day a pleasant occasion to

meet, for even those who sleep apart (and there are many) dine

together. They talk of what they have eaten, of what they have

seen elsewhere, of fashionable dishes and of new inventions, etc.,

etc. We all know how full of charms this CHIT CHAT is.

 

Music, doubtless, has many charms for those who love it; but to

succeed, one must make a business of it.

 

Besides, sometimes one has a cold, misplaces the score, has the

sick headache or feels inert.

 

One necessity calls each of the couple to the table, where the

same feeling retains them. They exhibit naturally slight

attentions to each other, which evinces a desire to please, and

the manner in which they act to each other speaks loudly of the

manner of their lives.

 

This observation, though new in France, has not escaped the

attention of the English novelist, Fielding, who in Pamela gives

the well-known instance of the manner in which the heroine and her

husband lived on the one hand, and the more magnificent but

unhappy life of the elder brother and his wife.

 

Honour then to gourmandise as we present it to our readers,

inasmuch as it diverts man neither from occupation nor from duty;

for as the dissoluteness of Sardanapulus did not cause the world

to look on woman with horror, neither did Vitellius’ excesses

induce the world to turn aside from a well-ordered entertainment.

 

When gourmandise becomes gluttony, voracity or debauchery, it

loses its name and attributes, falling into the hands of the

moralist who will treat it by advice, or the medical man who will

treat it by remedy. Gourmandise, as the professor has described

it, has a name only in French; neither the Latin gula, English

“gluttony” nor German lusternheit, expresses it, and we recommend

all who attempt a translation of this instructive book to preserve

the word, changing the article which produces it only. Thus they

did with coquetterie.

 

NOTE OF A PATRIOT GASTRONOMER.

 

“I observe with pride, that gourmandise and coquettery, the two

great modifications which society has effected in our imperious

wants, are both of French origin.”

 

MEDITATION XII.

 

GOURMANDS.

 

ALL WHO WISH TO BE ARE NOT GOURMANDS.

 

THERE are individuals to whom nature has refused a fineness of

organs and a degree of attention, without which the most succulent

food passes unperceived.

 

Physiology has already recognized the first of these varieties, by

exhibiting the tongue of those unfortunate men who are badly

provided with the means of appreciating flavors and tastes. Such

persons have but an obtuse sensation, for to them taste is what

light is to the blind.

 

The second of these varieties is composed of absent minded men, of

ambitious persons, and others, who wish to attend to two things at

once, and who eat only to eat.

 

NAPOLEON.

 

Such was Napoleon; he was irregular in his meals and ate quickly.

When hungry, his appetite had to be satisfied at once, and he was

so completely served, that at any hour he could have fowl, game or

coffee.

 

GOURMANDS BY DESTINY.

 

There is however, a privileged class, which organic and material

organization invites to the enjoyments of the taste.

 

I was always a disciple of Lavater and Gall, and believe in innate

ideas.

 

As persons have been born who see, walk, and hear badly, because

they are near-sighted, lame, or deaf, why may there not be others

inclined to peculiar sensations.

 

To the most careless observer there will ever be presented faces

which bear the undeniable expression of some dominant sentiment,

such as disdainful impertinence, self-satisfaction, misanthropy,

sensuality, &c. A very meaningless face may express all this, but

when the face has a determined expression, one is rarely mistaken.

 

Passions agitate the muscles, and often when a man is silent, the

various feelings which agitate him may be read on his face. This

tension, though habitual leave sensible traces, and give the face

a permanent and well defined character.

 

SENSUAL PREDESTINATION.

 

The persons predestined to gourmandise are in general of medium

stature. Their faces are either round or square, and small, their

noses short and their chins rounded. The women are rather pretty

than beautiful, and they have a slight tendency to obesity.

 

Those who are fondest of friandises have delicate features,

smaller, and are distinguished by a peculiar expression of the

mouth.

 

Agreeable guests should be sought for among those who have this

appearance. They receive all that is offered them, eat slowly, and

taste advisedly. They do not seek to leave places too quickly

where they have been kindly received. They are always in for all

the evening, for they know all games, and all that is neccessary

for a gastronomical soiree.

 

Those, on the contrary, to whom nature has refused a desire for

the gratifications of taste, have a long nose and face. Whatever

be their statures, the face seems out of order. Their hair is dark

and flat, and they have no embonpoint. They invented pantaloons.

 

Women whom nature has thus afflicted, are very angulous, are

uncomfortable at the table, and live on lenten fare.

 

This physiological theory will, I trust, meet with not many

contradictions: any one may verify the matter. I will, however,

rely on facts.

 

I was sitting one day at a great entertainment, and saw opposite

to me a very pretty woman with a very sensual face. I leaned

towards my neighbor and said, that the lady with such features

must be gourmande. “Bah!” said he, “she is not more than fifteen;

she is not old enough—let us see though.”

 

The beginning was not favorable, and I was afraid of being

compromised. During the first two courses, the young woman ate

with a discretion which really amazed me. The dessert came, it was

brilliant as it was abundant, and gave me some hopes. I was not

deceived, for she not only ate what was set before her, but sent

for dishes which were at the other end of the table. She tasted

every thing, and we were surprised that so small a stomach could

contain so much. My diagnostics succeeded and science triumphed.

 

Two years after I met this same lady, who had been married a week.

She had become far more beautiful, was something of a coquette,

for fashion permitted her to exhibit her charms. Her husband was a

man worth looking at, but he was like one of those ventriloquists

who laugh on one side of the face and weep on the other. He was

very fond of his wife, but when any one spoke to her, quivered

with jealousy. The latter sentiment prevailed, for he took his

wife to one of the most remote departments of France, and I, at

least, can write no more of her biography.

 

I made a similar observation about the Duke of Decres, long

minister of marine.

 

We knew that he was large, short, dark and square; that his face

was round, that his chin protruded, that his lips were thick, and

that he had a giant’s mouth. I therefore had no hesitation in

proclaiming him fond of good cheer and of women.

 

This physiognomical remark I whispered to a woman I thought very

pretty and very discreet. I was mistaken though, for she was a

daughter of Eve, and my secret was made known. One evening his

excellency was informed of the idea I had deduced from his face.

 

I ascertained this the next day, by a pleasant letter which I

received from the Duke, in which he insisted that he had not the

two qualities I had attributed to him.

 

I confessed myself beaten. I replied that nature does nothing in

vain; that she had evidently formed him for certain duties, and

that if he did not fulfil them he contradicted his appearance.

That besides, I had no right to expect such confidence, etc., etc.

 

There the correspondence terminated, but a few days after all

Paris was amused by the famous encounter between the minister and

his cook, in which his excellency did not get the best of the

matter. If after such an affair the cook was not dismissed, (and

he was not,) I may conclude that the duke was completely overcome

by the artist’s talents, and that he could not find another one to

suit his taste so exactly, otherwise he would have gotten rid of

so warlike a servant.

 

As I wrote these lines, during a fine winter evening, Mr. Cartier,

once first violinist of the opera, entered my room and sat by the

fire. I was full of my subject, and looked attentively at him. I

said, “My dear Professor, how comes it that you, who have every

feature of gourmandise, are not a gourmand?” “I am,” said he, “but

I make abstinence a duty.” “Is that an act of prudence?” He did

not reply, but he uttered a sigh, a la Walter Scott.

 

GOURMANDS BY PROFESSION.

 

If there be gourmands by predestination, there are also gourmands

by profession. There are four classes of these: Financiers, men of

letters, doctors, and devotees.

 

FINANCIERS.

 

Financiers are the heroes of gourmandise. Hero is here the proper

name, for there was some contention, and the men who had titles

crowd all others beneath their titles and escutcheons. They would

have triumphed, but for the wealth of those they opposed. Cooks

contended with genealogists; and though dukes did not fail to

laugh at their amphitryon, they came to the dinner, and that was

enough.

 

Those persons who make money easily must be gourmands.

 

The inequality of wealth produces inequality of wants. He who can

pay every day for a dinner fit for an hundred persons, is often

satisfied after having eaten the thigh of a chicken. Art then must

use well its resources to revive appetite. Thus Mondar became a

gourmand, and others with the same tastes collects around him.

 

PHYSICIANS.

 

Causes of another nature, though far less baneful, act on

physicians, who, from the nature of things, are gourmands. To

resist the attractions set before them they must necessarily be

made of bronze.

 

One day I ventured to say, (Doctor Corvisart was at the end of the

table—the time was about 1806):—

 

“You are,” said I, with the air of an inspired puritan, “the last

remnant of a composition which once covered all France. The

members of it are either annihilated or dispersed. No longer do we

see farmers general, abbes, chevaliers, &c. Bear the