Outline for a so-called cookbook.
Savarin – on hunts and eggs fonduePlutarch – Cleopatra’s feasts with Antony - inimitablePetronius – Trimalchio’s feastWhat a pity that to eat ice cream is no sin!!!That pope from the Pamphlets who croaked like a dog from those melons and wineLucrezia Borgia and Pope Alexander’s court and the huge feastsBenvenuto Cellini – an anecdote about the pope: when the vomiting hour was near..Bocaccio – description of a feast as something connecting people in the Decameron, also Madame Tessa and the roast capon and the lover
The philosophy of food – starting with getting full, ending with getting stuffedGetting full – how?under what conditions?Happy days – happy days are here again – and food.Unhappy days – hours of sadness – mostly unhappy love and foodRemembering things in food: memories and connections in food that we don’t even like.Aroma and music. Imagination is really omnipresent like the LordImagination burned out of love – imagination burned out of indifferenceDifferences in perception of taste under differing circumstances(hard-boiled eggs on a school trip – and Trimalchio’s feast)The seasons influence not just the possibilities, but also the reception of foodThe seasons as irrefutable and permanent guides to everything – and their useGuides to food – because sometimes it is, but usually isn’t a mere matter of getting full.The difference between poorness and poverty and the difference between sufficiency and idiocyThe intoxicating side of appetite: the appetite to live and enjoy life