Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin Quotes

Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.

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.

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

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 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.

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

Dessert without cheese is like a beauty with only one eye

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

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 fate of a nation depends on the way that they eat.

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

The pleasure of the table belongs to all ages, to all conditions, to all countries, and to all areas; it mingles with all other pleasures, and remains at last to console us for their departure.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

The universe is nothing without the things that live in it, and everything that lives, eats.

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.

You first parents of the human race...who ruined yourself for an apple, what might you have done for a truffled turkey?

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

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

I am not accustomed to take my wine in pills.

The German Doctors say that persons sensible of harmony have one sense more than others.

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.

The table is the only place where we do not get weary during the first hour.

Those from whom nature has withheld taste invented trousers.

The destiny of nations depends on how they nourish themselves.

The limits of pleasure are as yet neither known nor fixed, and that we have no idea what degree of bodily bliss we are capable of attaining.

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.

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.

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.

Gluttony is mankind's exclusive prerogative.

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.

Alcohol is the monarch of liquids.

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

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.

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