Food and Wine : History

Jean-Anthelme Brillat Savarin (April 1, 1755, Belley, France - February 2, 1826, Paris), a French lawyer and politician, and gained fame as an epicure and gastronome. He was born in the town of Belley, Ain, where the Rhone River then separated France from Savoy, to a family of lawyers. [...]. His famous work, Physiologie du gout ( The Physiology of Taste ) , was published in December 1825, two months before his death. The full title is Physiologie du Goût, ou Méditations de Gastronomie Transcendante; ouvrage théorique, historique et à l'ordre du jour, dédié aux Gastronomes parisiens, par un Professeur, membre de plusieurs sociétés littéraires et savantes. [...]. The body of his work, though often wordy or excessively - and sometimes dubiously - aphoristic and axiomatic, has remained extremely important and has repeatedly been re-analyzed through the years since his death. In a series of Meditations that owe something to Montaigne's Essays, and have the discursive rhythm of an age of leisured reading and a confident pursuit of educated pleasures, Brillat-Savarin discourses on the pleasures of the table, which he considers a science. His French models were the stylists of the Ancien Régime : Voltaire, Rousseau, Fenelon, Buffon, Cochin and d'Aguesseau. Aside from Latin, he knew five modern languages well, and wasn't shy to parade them, when the occasion suited. As a modernist, he never hesitated to borrow a word, like the English sip when French seemed to him to fail. The genuine philosophy of Epicurus lies at the back of every page; the simplest meal satisfied Brillat-Savarin, as long as it was executed with artistry:. Those persons who suffer from indigestion, or who become drunk, are utterly ignorant of the true principles of eating and drinking. [Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Anthelme_Brillat-Savarin] more...

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Some have called Sacred Harp singing America’s earliest music. This powerful nondenominational religious singing, part of a deeply held Southern culture, has spread throughout the nation over the past two centuries. In A Sacred Feast, Kathryn Eastburn journeys into the community of Sacred Harp singers across the country and introduces readers to the curious glories of a tradition that is practiced today just as it was two hundred years ago. more...

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In this unique contribution to the anthropology of food, Simon Charsley traces the history of the wedding cake to the present day and shows how it provides a vivid illustration of the traditions and traditional values inherent in all foods. more...

Price: $31.95