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.

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

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

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

The first thing we become convinced of is that man is organized so as to be far more sensible of pain than of pleasure.

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?"

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