Best 86 quotes of Jean Anthelme Brillat-savarin on MyQuotes

A connoisseur of gastronomy was congratulated on his appointment as a director of indirect contributions at Periguex: and, above all, in the pleasure there would be in living in the midst of good cheer, in the country of truffles, partridges, truffled turkeys, and so forth. "Alas!" replied with a sigh the sad gastronomer, "can one really live at all in a country where there is no fresh sea-fish?

Alcohol carries the pleasures of the palate to their highest degree.

Alcohol is the monarch of liquids.

All languages had their birth, their apogee and decline.

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.

A meal without wine is like a day without sun

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

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

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.

At the table of a gentleman living in the Chausee d'Antin was served up an Arles sausage of enormous size. "Will you accept a slice?" the host asked a lady who was sitting next to him; "you see it has come from the right factory."It is really very large," said the lady, casting on it a roguish glance; "What a pity it is unlike anything.

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.

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

Burgundy makes you think of silly things; Bordeaux makes you talk about them, and Champagne makes you do them.

Cooking is one of the oldest arts and one which has rendered us the most important service in civic life.

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

Every cure of obesity must begin with these three essential precepts:discretion in eating, moderation in sleeping, and exercise.

Food is all those substances which, submitted to the action of the stomach, can be assimilated or changed into life by digestion, and can thus repair the losses which the human body suffers through the act of living.

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

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.

Gastronomers of the year 1825, who find sateity in the lap of abundance, and dream of some newly-made dishes, you will not enjoy the discoveries which science has in store for the year 1900, such as foods drawn from the mineral kingdom, liqueurs produced by the pressure of a hundred atmospheres; you will never see the importations which travelers yet unborn will bring to you from that half of the globe which has still to be discovered or explored. How I pity you!

Gluttony is mankind's exclusive prerogative.

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

Gourmandism is an act of judgment, by which we prefer things which have a pleasant taste to those which lack this quality.

Hearing, which, by the motion of the air, informs us of the motion of sounding or vibrating bodies.

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.

I am a strong partisan of second causes, and I believe firmly that the entire gallinaceous order has been merely created to furnish our larders and our banquets.

I am not accustomed to take my wine in pills.

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

If any man has drunk a little too deeply from the cup of physical pleasure; if he has spent too much time at his desk that should have been spent asleep; if his fine spirits have become temporarily dulled; if he finds the air too damp, the minutes too slow, and the atmosphere too heavy to withstand; if he is obsessed by a fixed idea which bars him from any freedom of thought: if he is any of these poor creatures, we say, let him be given a good pint of amber-flavored chocolate... and marvels will be performed.

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.

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

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.

In the hands of an able cook, fish can become an inexhaustible source of perpetual delight.

In the state of society in which we now find ourselves, it is difficult to imagine a nation which lived solely on bread and vegetables.

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.

It is the duty of all papas and mammas to forbid their children to drink coffee, unless they wish to have little dried-up machines, stunted and old at the age of twenty... once saw a man in London, in Leicester Square, who had been crippled by immoderate indulgence in coffee; he was no longer in any pain, having grown accustomed to his condition, and had cut himself down to five or six cups a day.

I will only observe, that that ethereal sense - sight, and touch, which is at the other extremity of the scale, have from time acquired a very remarkable additional power.

La de  couverte d'un mets nouveau fait plus pour le bonheur du genre humain que la de  couverte d'une e  toile. The discoveryof a newdish doesmore for thehappiness of mankind than the discovery of a star.

L'alcool est le monarque des liquides, et porte au dernier degre   l'exaltation palatale. Alcohol is the prince of liquids, and carries the palate to its highest pitch of exaltation.

La volaille est pour la cuisine ce qu'est la toile pour les peintres. Fowls are to the kitchen what his canvas is to the painter.

Let the progress of the meal be slow, for dinner is the last business of the day; and let the guests conduct themselves like travelers due to reach their destination together.

Meals, in the sense in which we understand this word, began with the second age of the human species.

Monsieur,' Madame d'Arestel, Superior of the convent of the Visitation at Belley, once said to me more than fifty years ago, 'whenever you want to have a really good cup of chocolate, make it the day before, in a porcelain coffeepot, and let it set. The night's rest will concentrate it and give it a velvety quality which will make it better. Our good God cannot possibly take offense at this little refinement, since he himself is everything that is most perfect.

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

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.

Once fire was discovered, the instinct for improvement made men bring food to it. First to dry it, then to put it on the coals to cook.

Place a substantial meal before a tired man and he will eat with effort and be little better for it at first. Give him a glass of wine or brandy, and immediately he feels better: you see him come to life again before you.

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

Salad freshens without enfeebling and fortifies without irritating.

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.