W. G. Waters
"Show me a pleasure like dinner, which comes every day and lasts an
hour." -- Talleyrand circa 1901
To
A. V.
In memory of Certain Ausonian Feasts
Preface
Montaigne in one of his essays* mentions the high excellence
Italian cookery had attained in his day. "I have entered into this
Discourse upon the Occasion of an Italian I lately receiv'd into my
Service, and who was Clerk of the Kitchen to the late Cardinal
Caraffa till his Death. I put this Fellow upon an Account of his
office: Where he fell to Discourse of this Palate-Science, with
such a settled Countenance and Magisterial Gravity, as if he had
been handling some profound Point of Divinity. He made a Learned
Distinction of the several sorts of Appetites, of that of a Man
before he begins to eat, and of those after the second and third
Service: The Means simply to satisfy the first, and then to raise
and acute the other two: The ordering of the Sauces, first in
general, and then proceeded to the Qualities of the Ingredients,
and their Effects: The Differences of Sallets, according to their
seasons, which ought to be serv'd up hot, and which cold: The
Manner of their Garnishment and Decoration, to render them yet more
acceptable to the Eye after which he entered upon the Order of the
whole Service, full of weighty and important Considerations.
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