The Physiology of Taste

This culinary classic was first published in Paris in 1825, the year before the author's death. It is a rumination on the living of life, not merely on food and drink that sustain life, and it is this largeness of purpose, its wisdom, and sense of humor that have endeared this book to an ever-larger audience on both sides of the Atlantic over the hundred and seventy years since it was issued. M. F. K. Fisher, one of America's great writers, found her voice while translating Brillat-Savarin in 1948, and The Physiology of Taste became a model for her own articles and books. Wayne Thiebaud is a world-renowned artist, whose pictures of food are among his best-known images. In addition to familiar subjects, such as pastries in rows, he has made a vast array of drawings, touching on the animal and vegetable life that informs this book.