Brillat-Savarin: The Judge and His Stomach

MacDonogh's biography of the 18th century French gastronome, public official and judge, Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, spans the French Revolution and the Napoleanic Empire. Brillat-Savarin, best known for the book written in the last years of his life, "The Physiology of Taste," swam in the thick of French politics and upheaval. A provincial member of the revolutionary French Assembly, Brillat-Savarin was forced to flee to America during the worst of guillotine fever. In the midst of flight he met a sailor whose tongue had been cut out by pirates and was curious to know if he retained the ability to taste. McDonogh seasons Brillat-Savarin with such anecdotes - lavish feasts at pre-revolutionary abbeys where the young lawyer played violin with an ensemble of friends, turkey shoots in America, contests of gluttony in inns and restaurants, specialties discovered in cafes and homes during his extensive travels throughout Europe. After years of rocky fortunes, Brillat-Savarin found favor with Napolean and landed tenure as a judge. He recalls Napolean's abstemious habits and the groaning tables of some of his aides. In retirement, upon Napolean's defeat, he grew grapes and wrote about law, medicine and food. McDonogh's gastronomic anecdotes make better reading than the volatile politics. Not much is really know of Brillat-Savarin's days (his relatives destroyed many of his letters and stories) and the biography is filled with "probably's" and "may have done's." Sometimes humorous, sometimes dry, this is an interesting volume for the setting and the food.

Brillat-Savarin is without contest the nicest figure in french history. Far from beeing only a gourmet, he was also deeply involved in the events of the french revolution. Giles Mac Donogh renders perfectly the atmosphere of a life turned upside down by history, at a time when the cuisine itself experienced a deep change: the first restaurants were opened a few years before the revolution