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L'Almanach Des Gourmands (Good cook and a good writer)

good cook and a good writer on cookery-a cook who can compose and a writer who can suggest and stimulate-at once become of even greater value than a college of physicians. These desirable qualifications belong preeminently to the French, as brewing belongs to the Germans, weaving to the Orientals, sculpture to the Italians, and mechanical invention to the Americans. The same facilities present themselves in many countries-it has remained for France to perfect them and create a literature on the subject distinctively its own. The Frenchman may keep on his hat during the entr'actes of a play and be forever wrangling with his mode of government, but he has taught the world how to dine. "Let me have books!" cries Horace; "Let us have cooks!" exclaims the Gaul. And with the cooks come the cook-books-the meditations, codes, almanacs, physiologies, manuals, and guides.