The cult of the chafing dish

“What does cookery mean? It means the knowledge of Medea, and of Circe, and of Calypso, and of Helen, and of Rebekah, and of the Queen of Sheba. It means knowledge of all herbs, and fruits, and balms, and spices, and of all that is healing and sweet in groves, and savoury in meat. It means carefulness and inventiveness, watchfulness, willingness, and readiness of appliances. It means the economy of your Great-grandmother, and the Science of modern chemistry, and French art, and Arabian hospitality. It means, in fine, that you are to see imperatively that every one has something nice to eat.”
RUSKIN
The·cult· of·the· Chafing· Dish· BY· FRANK· SCHLOESSER· LONDON GAY·AND·BIRD 1905
To
THE ONLY WOMAN
WHO COULD TURN
ME FROM
BACHELORDOM
CONTENTS
THE·CULT·OF·THE·CHAFINGDISH···
CHAPTER·1·THE·CHAFING·DISH
“There does not at this blessed moment breathe on the Earth’s surface a human being that willna prefer eating and drinking to all ither pleasures o’ body or soul.”—The Ettrick Shepherd.