A Literary Culinary Journal
A fruit is a vegetable with looks and money. Plus, if you let fruit, it turns into wine, something Brussels sprouts never do.–P.J. O’Rourke, 1997
Patrick Jake “P. J.” O’Rourke (born November 14, 1947) is an American political satirist, journalist, writer, and author.
His latest book, Don’t Vote—It Just Encourages the Bastard, was published in September 2010. Both Time and The Wall Street Journal have called him “the funniest writer in America.”
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What is food to one is to others bitter poison.–Lucretius, 50 BC
Titus Lucretius Carus (ca. 99 BCE – ca. 55 BCE) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is an epic philosophical poem laying the foundations of Epicureanism, De Rerum Natura, translated into English as On the Nature of Things or sometimes On the Nature of the Universe.
Click here to read “The Answer Man,” a critique by Stephen Greenblatt in The New Yorker.
On the Nature of Things
No single thing abides; but all things flow.
Fragment to fragment clings-the things thus grow
Until we know and name them. By degrees
They melt, and are no more the things we know.
Globed from the atoms falling slow or swift
I see the suns, I see the systems lift
Their forms; and even the systems and the suns
Shall go back slowly to the eternal drift.
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by Simón de Swaan
Good food is in effect the basis for true happiness.–Auguste Escoffier, c. 1912
French chef, restaurateur and culinary writer August Escoffier (1846 – 1935) popularized and updated traditional French cooking methods. He is a legendary figure among chefs and gourmands, and was one of the most important leaders in the development of modern French cuisine.
Three of Escoffier’s most noted career achievements are revolutionizing and modernizing the menu, the art of cooking, and the organization of the professional kitchen. Escoffier simplified the menu as it had been, writing the dishes down in the order in which they would be served (service à la Russe), referred to Russian style service. He also developed the first à la carte menu. His books are still used by culinary students and chefs alike.
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by Simón de Swaan
Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea.–Sydney Smith
Sydney Smith (3 June 1771 – 22 February 1845) was an English writer and Anglican cleric. Long after his death, his memory was to live on among homemakers in the United States, owing to his rhyming recipe for salad dressing.
Two boiled potatoes strained through a kitchen sieve,
Softness and smoothness to the salad give;
Of mordant mustard take a single spoon,
Distrust the condiment that bites too soon!
Yet deem it not, thou man of taste, a fault
To add a double quantity of salt. Four times the spoon with oil of Lucca crown, And twice with vinegar procured from town; True taste requires it and your poet begs The pounded yellow of two well-boiled eggs. Let onion’s atoms lurk within the bowl And, scarce suspected, animate the whole, And lastly in the flavoured compound toss A magic spoonful of anchovy sauce. Oh, great and glorious! Oh, herbaceous meat! ‘Twould tempt the dying Anchorite to eat,
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“Opie, you haven’t finished your milk. We can’t put it back in the cow, you know.”–Aunt Bee, “The Andy Griffith Show”
Aunt Bee, 1960’s fictional television character who played in the long-running “The Andy Griffith Show”
Click here to listen to a clip.
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Gluttony is a great fault; but we do not necessarily dislike a glutton. We only dislike the glutton when he becomes a gourmet — that is, we only dislike him when he not only wants the best for himself, but knows what is best for other people.–G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)
C.K. Chesterton was a prolific English writer. In addition to writing poetry, plays, and philosophy, he also wrote literary and art criticism, biographies, fantasy fiction works and detective fiction. Chesterton has been called the “prince of paradox.” He is well known for his reasoned apologetics, and even some of those who disagree with him have recognized the universal appeal of such works as Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man.
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by Jonell Galloway
Husband Peter and I and Rosa Mayland, author of our column “Rosa’s Musings,” had a great time at the Expat Expo Geneva on Sunday. It’s a great way to make contacts in Geneva.
We had a drawing for 6 red polka-dot Kuhn Rikon knives.
Here are the winners:
Paula Davies-Smith
M. Rowe
Peter Zornow
Sayjel
Alison Farley
Michelle Arevalo-Carpenter
Congratulations. You are now the proud owner of knives made by one of the most reputable brands of cookware in the world, and they’re made in Switzerland!
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by Simón de Swaan
No lyric poems live long or please many people which are written by drinkers of water.–Horace, 20 B.C.
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (8 December 65 BCE – 27 November 8 BCE), known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus. Horace is generally considered to stand alongside Virgil and Ovid as one of the greatest poets of the Augustan Age.
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Remember that you ought to behave in life as you would at a banquet. As something is being passed around, it comes to you; stretch out your hand, take a portion of it politely. It passes on; do not detain it. Or it has not come to you yet; do not project your desire to meet it, but wait until it comes in front of you.–Epictetus, c. 135
Epictetus was a Greek sage and Stoic philosopher. The major compilation of Epictetus’ teachings are the four-volume work standardly referred to in English as the Discourses.
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by Simón de Swaan
Is it only the mouth and belly which are injured by hunger and thirst? Men’s minds are also injured by them.–Mencius, c. 300 BC
Mencius, c. 300 BC, was a Chinese philosopher who was arguably the most famous Confucian after Confucius himself. He encouraged “generosity, self-sacrifice, humility, receptiveness to instruction, as well as to powers associated with these qualities.”
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Meet Jonell Galloway, a freelance writer and editor specialized in French cuisine. 
