The Pleasures of the Table

Gastronomy from ancient days to modern times — the feasts of Greece and Rome, the great chefs and their schools, the literature of the table, and Ellwanger's own views on the aesthetics of dinner-giving.

About the Book

1902Published
George H. EllwangerAuthor
62Chapters
216Pages on this site

George H. Ellwanger wrote The Pleasures of the Table (1902) as "an account of gastronomy from ancient days to present times" — a history of eating well, from the banquets of antiquity through the great French chefs, with a history of gastronomic literature and its most distinguished artists.

It closes with special recipes and the author's own aesthetics of dinners and dinner-giving — the work of a man who took the table as seriously as the library.

This digital edition is built from a dual-engine OCR, reconciled page by page, with the original plates.

This site reproduces the complete text of the original 1902 edition, digitized page by page from the original printing. The book is in the public domain.

Rights & ReuseThe complete text of The Pleasures of the Table (1902) is in the public domain in the United States — like all works published before 1928 — and is free to read, download, quote, teach from, and reuse. This digital edition (its transcription, restored images, and site design) is © 2026 PhotoOpAI, and any editorial commentary we add is clearly marked as ours; the underlying public-domain text carries no such restriction.