February 2021
Dietary Advice from a Poet During an Epidemic
In a twenty-four-line poem about how one might survive the epidemic of 1373 that was ravaging western Europe, Eustache Deschamps (1346-1407) spends at least a third of the time mentioning which foods to consume and [...]
December 2020
Old News and a Child’s Curiosity
How many of us would eagerly read a bit of newspaper that has been used to wrap food? All of us, ideally, if we had as voracious an appetite for reading as the writer Emmelie [...]
November 2020
Food and Drink to Sway Voters
How to win an election: have a proven track record of work related to the position being sought, be eloquent about wanting to help your potential constituents, have integrity, hold townhall meetings, …or offer food [...]
October 2020
A Change of Mind
From vehemently rejecting the French word “menu” to using the very same word matter-of-factly in the title of one’s book—much can change in a few years. In The Culinary Handbook: The Most Complete and Serviceable [...]
Donner à boire à un chat : Marguerite Gérard, la Prison Saint-Lazare
A cat being fed: would seeing images of this lead to curiosity about a women’s prison in Paris or about one of the few successful female painters from late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century France? It [...]
September 2020
« Hélas ! j’ai bu, vous croyant mes amis… »
In 1814 General Andrew Jackson urgently needed more soldiers in order to be able to fight off the British who were trying to take New Orleans. On September 21st he appealed to the freemen of [...]