No one seriously interested in food need be reminded that Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin is the father of gastronomy, or that his book La Physiologie du goût, published in 1825 and never since out of print, is gastronomy's first great classic. Giles MacDonogh's book is likewise a first: the only full and authoritative biography of Brillat. Far from being just a gastronome, during perhaps the most interesting period of French history Brillat was also a lawyer, politician, emigré in flight from the guillotine, teacher of French in New York, first violin, hunter, secretary to the general staff of the French revolutionary army, judge, lover, and pornographer. Besides Brillat's life, Mr. MacDonogh presents a fascinating picture of provincial France under the ancien régime and the dangerous years that followed its fall. His remarkable book adds greatly to our knowledge both of the art of cookery in a heroic age of gourmandise and of French life at its gamiest.
