A Literary Culinary Journal
Spices and Corruption: Spices were so expensive that they could be given as gifts. Custom was to give them to judges during trials as thanks…or to corrupt them. In the 14th century, the term “spices” designated a mandatory tax which was added to the subtotal of a bill.–Le Viandier, credited to Guillaume Tirel, alias Taillevent
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A good cook is the peculiar gift of the gods. He must be a perfect creature from the brain to the palate, from the palate to the finger’s end.–Walter Savage Landor
Walter Savage Landor
Walter Savage Landor was an English writer and poet who lived from 1775–1864. He wrote in both English and Latin, but much preferred Latin, which put him at a disadvantage in terms of readership. His best known works were the prose Imaginary Conversations, “five volumes of imaginary conversations between personalities of classical Greece and Rome: poets and authors; statesmen and women; and fortunate and unfortunate individuals” (Wikipedia), and the poem “Rose Aylmer,” but the critical acclaim he received from poets and reviewers such as John Milton, T.S. Eliot, and John Butler Yeats was not matched by public popularity.
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It is true that I live almost entirely on bivalves. I prefer them as they are – and I think that oysters au naturel are as much a mental as a material enjoyment: you are eating the whole ocean.–Isak Dinesen
Karen von Blixen-Fineck was a Danish writer who wrote principally under the pseudo name Isak Dinesen — but also under the names Osceola and Pierre Andrézel — in Danish, French and English. She was married to her Swedish second cousin, the . She is best known for her book Out of Africa about her time living on her coffee plantation in the hills of Kenya, and for her short story “Out of Africa,” both of which were adapted into Academy Award-winning films.
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What I love about cooking is that after a hard day, there is something comforting about the fact that if you melt butter and add flour and then hot stock, it will get thick! It’s a sure thing! It’s a sure thing in a world where nothing is sure; it has a mathematical certainty in a world where those of us who long for some kind of certainty are forced to settle for crossword puzzles.–Nora Ephron
Academy Award for Best Writing was an American journalist, essayist, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, producer, director, and blogger. She is best known for her romantic comedies and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay): for Academy Award for Best Writing, Silkwood…, and When Harry Met Sally.
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Feasts must be solemn and rare, or else they cease to be feats.–Aldous Huxley, 1929
Aldous Huxley English novelist and critic, best known for his novel Brave New World (1931). Besides novels he published travel books, histories, poems, plays, and essays on philosophy, arts, sociology, religion and morals. Even today, Brave New World is so influential that an entire website is devoted to his writing.
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by Simon de Swaan
“Often, admiring a chef and getting to know him is like loving goose liver and then meeting the goose.”–George Lang
“Mr. Lang, a native of Hungary who escaped a forced-labor camp and imminent execution during World War II, came to New York in 1946 with a few dollars, no English and dreams of becoming a concert violinist,” says The New York Times, but found his calling as a restaurateur. He created the restaurant The Four Seasons and Café des Artistes in New York, as well as a long list of other restaurants.
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by Simon de Swaan
Food is the most primitive form of comfort.–Sheilah Graham
Sheilah Graham Westbrook was an English-born American nationally syndicated gossip columnist during Hollywood’s “Golden Age,” who with Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper wielded power to make or break careers prompting her to describe herself as “the last of the unholy trio.” Graham was also known for her relationship with F. Scott Fitzgerald. Click here to read about her life story.
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by Simón de Swaan
No one can be wise on an empty stomach.–George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans, better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She is the author of seven novels, including and Daniel Deronda.
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Once a turnip said, “I taste very good with honey.” “Go you boaster,” replied the honey, “I taste good without you.“–Russian folktale
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by Simón de Swaan
De gustibus non disputandum es. –Latin proverb
There is no disputing taste.
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Meet Jonell Galloway, a freelance writer and editor specialized in French cuisine. 
