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

The sense of smell explores; deleterious substances almost always have an unpleasant smell.

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

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

Vegetables, which are the lowest in the scale of living things, are fed by roots, which, implanted in the native soil, select by the action of a peculiar mechanism, different subjects, which serve to increase and to nourish them.

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

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