Book Club 1 - La Physiologie du goût, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

The Physiology of Taste is a series of epicurean meditations in which 19th century magistrate and gourmet Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin reflects on the fundamental role of food in culture. Examining the whole range of sensations and feelings we experience through our relation to what we eat, his work is an invitation to find joy in food and develop our taste. He also defined a word that exists only in French (or was subsequently borrowed by other languages), poetically describing how the French think about food. “Let us understand each other”, he wrote, “Gourmandise is a passionate preference, well determined and satisfied, for objects which flatter our taste.” Reading The Physiology of Taste, we’ll start off our discussions with a classic in gourmet literature.