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.

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

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.

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

The torrent of centuries rolling over the human race, has continually brought new perfections, the cause of which, ever active though unseen, is found in the demands made by our senses, which always in their turns demand to be occupied.

When I need a word and do not find it in French, I select it from other tongues, and the reader has either to understand or translate me. Such is my fate.

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.