The Physiology of Taste (2 page)

Bill Buford

GILES MACDONOGH
,
Brillat-Savarin: The Judge and His Stomach
, John Murray, London, 1992; Ivan R. Dee, Chicago, 2006.

HONORÉ DE BALZAC
, “Brillat Savarin’ from Michaud,
Biographie Universelle
, 1835 (vol. 59) in
Oeuvres complètes
. vol. 23, Club de l’Honnête Homme, 1956.

HONORé DE BALZAC
, “Traité des excitants modernes,” ed. Rose Fortassier in
La Comédie humaine
, ed. Pierre-Georges Castex, Vol. XII, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Gallimard, Paris, 1981.

PRISCILLA PARKHURST FERGUSON
, “Belly Talk: Gastronomie, gastrolâtrie, and gourmandise in the 19th century” in
Dix-Neuf
, the journal of the Society of Dix-Neuvièmistes, no. 1, September 2003.

JOSHUA WILNER
, “Economies of Excess in Brillat-Savarin, Balzac, and Baudelaire”, from
Romantic Gastronomies
, a volume of the Romantic Circles Praxis Series, University of Maryland, January 2007.

STEPHEN MENNELL
,
All Manners of Food: Eating and Taste in England and France from the Middle Ages to the Present
, University of Illinois Press, Chicago, 2nd edn, 1996.

REBECCA L. SPANG
,
The Invention of the Restaurant
, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2nd edn, 2001.

PRISCILLA PARKHURST FERGUSON
,
Accounting for Taste: The Triumph of French Cuisine
, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2004.

PAUL FREEDMAN
, ed.,
Food: The History of Taste
, Thames and Hudson, London, 2007.

DATE:
1746

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Menon:
La Cuisinière bourgeoise
.

DATE:
1747

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Voltaire: Z
adig
.
Hannah Glasse:
The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy
.

DATE:
1748

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Montesquieu:
De l’Esprit des lois
.
Toussaint:
Les Moeurs
. Diderot:
Les Bijoux indiscrets
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle ends War of Austrian Succession. Louis XV’s decision to restore French conquests (the southern Netherlands) to Austria, while praised abroad, proves unpopular at home.

DATE:
1749

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Buffon:
Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière
(to 1778).
Diderot:
Lettres sur les aveugles
.
Menon:
La Science du maître d’hôtel cuisinier
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
In order to finance huge budget deficit, Machault introduces a single tax of one twentieth (the
vingtième)
, payable by all classes; meets with protests and non-compliance from nobles and clergy, traditionally exempt from taxation.

DATE:
1751

LITERARY CONTEXT:
First volume of the
Encyclopédie
appears (35 vols, to 1776).

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Failure of Machault’s reforms.
Parlements
continue successfully to thwart any attempt at financial reform until the early 1770s.

DATE:
1752

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Voltaire:
Le Siécle de Louis XIV
.
Hume :
Political Discourses
.

DATE:
1753

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Grand Remonstrance: Paris
parlement
refuses to register royal edict supporting pope’s authority over church in France. Exile of
parlement
(to 1754).

DATE:
1754

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Condillac:
Traité des sensations
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Birth of Antoine Beauvilliers, widely regarded as the world’s first restaurateur.

DATE:
1755

AUTHOR’S LIFE:
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin born on 2 April in Belley, capital of Bugey, a remote, rugged, semi-Alpine province incorporated into France only in 1601, having been ruled formerly by the dukes of Savoy. His father, Marc Anthelme, is a lawyer, holding the post of
procureur royal
; his mother, Claudine Aurore Récamier, a lawyer’s daughter. The family enjoy both wealth and local status. JA is the eldest of eight children.

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Morellet:
Code de la nature
.
Rousseau:
Discours sur l’origine de l’inégalité
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Lisbon earthquake. British attacks on French ships off Newfoundland.

DATE:
1756

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Mirabeau (elder):
Ami des hommes au trait de la population
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Renversement des alliances:
Agreement of Westminster between Prussia and Great Britain; France and Austria conclude Treaty of Versailles. Outbreak of Seven Years’ War, fought in both Europe and the colonies.

DATE:
1757

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Hume:
Four Dissertations
.
Haller:
Elementia Physiologiae Corporis Humani
(to 1766).

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Defeat of Soubise by Frederick II at Rossbach. Assassination attempt on Louis XV.

DATE:
1758

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Helvétius:
De L’Esprit
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
French army evacuates Hanover. Choiseul chief minister (to 1770).

DATE:
1759

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Voltaire:
Candide
.
Sterne:
Tristram Shandy
(to 1767).
Johnson:
Rasselas
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
French defeated at Minden. Loss of Quebec, Martinique and Guadaloupe.
French naval defeats at Lagos and Quiberon.

DATE:
1760

AUTHOR’S LIFE:
A tutor is engaged for JA around this time. Throughout his childhood the family live in their town house during the legal terms and on their estate at Vieu in nearby Valromey during the holidays.

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Diderot:
La Religieuse
.
Mirabeau (elder)/Quesnay:
Théorie de l’impôt
.
Voltaire:
Tancrède
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Treaty of Turin between France and Savoy finally resolves border disputes in BS’s native region. Rebuilding of the tortuous mountain roads of Bugey begins.
Rameau:
Les Paladins
.

DATE:
1761

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Rousseau:
La Nouvelle Héloïse
.
Diderot:
Le Neveu de Rameau
.
Marmontel:
Contes moraux
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Greuze paints
The Village Betrothal
.

DATE:
1762

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Rousseau:
Le Contrat social
;
Emile.
Macpherson:
Ossian
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Family Compact between France and Spain. Torture and execution of Calas and later of La Barre (1765) fuels anti-clerical campaign.
Dombes, a small principality adjacent to Bugey, is suppressed and incorporated into Bresse. Its tiny
parlement
at Trévoux is abolished in 1771.

DATE:
1763

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Crébillon
fils: Le Hasard du
coin du feu
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Treaty of Paris ends Seven Years’ War and refines colonial interests of belligerents in favour of Great Britain. France humiliated by loss of Canada and India. Choiseul sets about rebuilding French army and navy.
Petit Trianon built at Versailles (to 1768) by Gabriel in the neoclassical style for the use of Madame de Pompadour; Louis XVI presents it to Queen Marie Antoinette in 1774.

DATE:
1764

AUTHOR’S LIFE:
Around this time JA enters the prestigious Collège de Belley as a boarder. Though staff are largely clerical, the curriculum is broad. He is impressed by the Latin poets but also reads the works of Lavater, Pascal, La Rochefoucauld, Montesquieu and Rabelais, and his lifelong favourites – Voltaire, Rousseau, Fénelon and Buffon.

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Voltaire:
Dictionnaire philosophique
.
Chamfort:
La Jeune Indienne
.
Beccaria:
On Crimes and Penalties
.
Winckelmann:
History of the Art of Antiquity
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Jesuit order suppressed in France – a victory for the Jansenist
parlements
.
Boulanger’s soup-kitchen in Paris advertises its
restaurants divins
(“restaurant” being a meat broth, thought to restore energy) and, radically, begins to expand its menu. His first dish, mutton trotters à
la sauce poulette
, brings Boulanger before the Paris
parlement
for serving a
ragoût
(privilege of the
traiteurs
who had a monopoly of supplying food for public consumption).
Winning his case, he goes on to introduce more dishes, and by 1771 the
Dictionnaire de Trévoux
lists the word “restaurant” with its modern meaning.
Death of Madame de Pompadour and Rameau. Soufflot begins the building of the Panthéon.

DATE:
1765

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Ephémérides du citoyen
(journal of the Physiocrats, to 1772).
Sedaine:
Philosophe sans le savoir
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Death of the Dauphin. Boucher becomes court painter to Louis XV. Grenville’s Stamp Act antagonizes American colonists.

DATE:
1766

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Turgot:
Réflexions sur la formation et la distribution des richesses
.
Smollett:
Travels through France and Italy
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Lorraine incorporated into France. Provincial
parlements
, lead by Brittany, challenge royal authority; Louis XV repudiates their claims in a
lit de justice. Commission des réguliers
established to enquire into abuses of the monastic world.
Bougainville’s voyage round the world (to 1769). Catherine the Great’s “Instruction”, inspired by the philosophy of the French Enlightenment. Cavendish isolates hydrogen.

DATE:
1767

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Holbach:
Le Christianisme dévoilé
.
Voltaire:
L’Ingénu
.
Marmontel:
Bélisaire
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Fragonard paints
The Swing
, regarded as a masterpiece of the rococo era.

DATE:
1768

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Crébillon
fils: Lettres de la duchesse de ***
.
Sterne:
A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
France buys Corsica from Genoa. Cook’s first voyage to the South Pacific.

DATE:
1770

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Holbach:
Système de la nature
.
Galiani:
Dialogue sur le commerce des blés
(attacks Physiocrat doctrines).

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Marriage of the future Louis XVI to Marie Antoinette, daughter of the Habsburg empress Maria Theresa. Fall of Choiseul. Ministry of Maupeou and Terray. High grain prices following poor harvest lead to government intervention, but provoke accusations from
parlements
that the king is speculating in grain while his people starve (the mythical
pacte de famine)
.
Popular disturbances suppressed.

DATE:
Early 1770s

AUTHOR’S LIFE:
Growing up in a small cathedral city, JA encounters numerous gourmandizing clerics who share their culinary secrets with him. He studies the violin, becoming an accomplished player, and also develops an interest in archaeology.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Maupeou and Terray bring Louis XV for the first time in his reign to face and defy resistance to reform. With opposition of
parlements
eliminated (see 1771 below) Terray is able to overhaul financial system by reforming the collection of both the
vingtième, and
the
capitation
(head tax) of Paris.

DATE:
1771

AUTHOR’S LIFE:
Witnesses the death of his 93-year-old great aunt, Christine Brillat, to whom he has been close, and is much affected by her calm resignation and lack of religious belief. He himself will abandon the Catholic church in later life.

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Sixth and final edition of the
Dictionnaire de Trévoux
(begun by Jesuits under the aegis of the duc de Maine, 1704).
Goldoni:
Le Bourru bienfaisant
.
Crébillon
fils: Lettres athéniennes
.
Mackenzie:
The Man of Feeling
.
Smollett:
Humphrey Clinker
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Parlement
of Paris exiled by Maupeou and replaced by six new courts with salaried magistrates nominated by the king; venal offices abolished.
Remonstrating provincial
parlements
similarly remodelled. Furious outcry from nobles, provincial estates and Paris bourgeoisie (Voltaire, however, sees the sense of it.) Further judicial and administrative reforms initiated.
Grétry:
Zémir et Azor
(Fontainebleau).

DATE:
1772/3

AUTHOR’S LIFE:
A fragment of a story, “Ma premiere chute”, written years later, suggests JA had his first
liaison amoureuse
at this time.

LITERARY CONTEXT:
1772 Susannah Carter:
The Frugal Housewife
.
Cazotte:
Le Diable amoureux
.
Guibert:
Essai général de tactique
.
1773 Diderot:
Jacques le fataliste
.
Marat:
Philosophical Essay on Man
.
Goldsmith:
She Stoops to Conquer
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Boston Tea Party (1773).

DATE:
1774

AUTHOR’S LIFE:
Takes lodgings in Dijon where he studies law at the university and adds an aristocratic “de” to his name.

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Goethe:
The Sorrows of Young Werther
.
Marat:
The Chains of Slavery
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
Death of Louis XV (10 May). Accession of his grandson as Louis XVI. Maurepas acquires chief influence in government.
Parlementaires
organize demonstrations in Paris, exploiting the legend of a
pacte de famine
. Recall of
parlements
. Turgot Controller-General.
Gluck:
Iphigénie en Aulide
produced in Paris: celebrated Gluck-Piccinni feud engineered by supporters of the two Paris-based composers. Priestley discovers oxygen.

DATE:
1775

LITERARY CONTEXT:
Beaumarchais:
Le Barbier de Séville
.
Restif de la Bretonne:
Le Paysan perverti
.
Lavater:
Fragments of Physiognomy
(to 1778).
Mirabeau (younger):
Essai sur le despotisme
.
Johnson:
Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
.

HISTORICAL EVENTS:
The poor harvest of 1774 leads to riots in the spring
(Guerre des farines)
, beginning in the provinces (including Dijon, where BS is studying) and spreading to Paris. Turgot carries out programme of economic and administrative reform, antagonizing powerful vested interests. Saint-Germain becomes Minister of War and sets about reforming the army on Prussian lines (to 1777).

DATE:
1776

AUTHOR’S LIFE:
Romantic attachment to Louise, possibly the daughter of a counsellor at the Dijon
parlement
. Apparently suffering from some kind of eating disorder, she dies in his arms at the age of 18.