Gourmandism is an act of judgment, by which we prefer things which have a pleasant taste to those which lack this quality.
Interpretation
Gourmandism reflects a preference for pleasurable tastes over those that are not enjoyable.
In this quote, Brillat-Savarin highlights the concept of gourmandism as a conscious choice made by individuals to seek out and appreciate flavors that bring joy and satisfaction. This idea underscores the importance of taste and the sensory experience in our consumption choices, suggesting that pleasure plays a fundamental role in our relationship with food.
In practice
This quote can be used in a culinary presentation to emphasize the importance of flavor in cooking.
It has been shown as proof positive that carefully prepared chocolate is as healthful a food as it is pleasant; that it is nourishing and easily digested... that it is above all helpful to people who must do a great deal of mental work.
The limits of pleasure are as yet neither known nor fixed, and that we have no idea what degree of bodily bliss we are capable of attaining.
Place a substantial meal before a tired man and he will eat with effort and be little better for it at first. Give him a glass of wine or brandy, and immediately he feels better: you see him come to life again before you.
In the hands of an able cook, fish can become an inexhaustible source of perpetual delight.
You first parents of the human race...who ruined yourself for an apple, what might you have done for a truffled turkey?
Cooking is one of the oldest arts and one which has rendered us the most important service in civic life.
What I've enjoyed most, though, is meeting people who have a real interest in food and sharing ideas with them. Good food is a global thing and I find that there is always something new and amazing to learn - I love it!
Bread is for us a kind of successor to the motherly breast, and it has been over the centuries responsible for billions of sighs of satisfaction.
Fake food -- I mean those patented substances chemically flavored and mechanically bulked out to kill the appetite and deceive the gut -- is unnatural, almost immoral, a bane to good eating and good cooking.
The discovery of a good wine is increasingly better for mankind than the discovery of a new star.
Is it a good hot dog? That’s all I want to know … I don’t think the personal health and purity of my colon is that important compared to pleasure. As a chef, I’m not your dietitian or your ethicist. I’m in the pleasure business …. My responsibility is to give you the most delicious tomato that I can afford, given the circumstances, and maybe increase the likelihood that you get laid after dinner.
Once you start cooking, one thing leads to another. A new recipe is as exciting as a blind date. A new ingredient, heaven help me, is an intoxicating affair.
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