Date: 25th October 1972
Venue: The Staff House,
University of Birmingham
Sponsor: Dr John Hathaway
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Minutes – Brillat-Savarin Dinner
A meeting of the Club was held at the Staff House, the University of Birmingham on 25th October 1972, when Mr. John Hathaway, senior lecturer in French at the University, sponsored a Brillat-Savarin Dinner.
Before we went into dinner, we were suitably amazed by a fountain of punch: Punch Marquise it was called – basically a sweetish white wine strengthened not with rum as many of us thought, but with eau de vie de marc. Members dipped their glasses into the fountain to prepare themselves for what was to follow.
The President, Sir Arthur Thomson, was in hospital and members wished him a speedy recovery. He had sent a message recommending us to read Brillat-Savarin in the original as he feared some bowdlerisation intranslation.
The Sponsor began by telling us that it was difficult to follow this advice as he had been unable to get a copy of “La Physiologie du gout” in French even in Brillat-Savarin’s native town of Bellay. We would have to make do with the Pengiun translation : “The Philosopher in the Kitchen”.
Bellay is a small town between Lyons and Geneva, well placed in relation to the best horticultural areas, to the rivers and lakes of the mountains, to country where game abounded, to Burgundy.
Brillat-Savarin was a country gentleman, a lawyer and an amateur of the violin. When he had to emigrate during the revolution, he kept himself in America by teaching and playing the instrument. He also shot and ate wild turkeys there. He had very modern views on diet and obesity. He served exquisite but light meals in an epoch of gluttony.
The sponsor quoted a few of his aphorisms, for instance: “Tell me what you eat: I will tell you what you are”. Members, looking back on their Buckland Club experiences, wondered what they were. “The discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of mankind than the discovery of a star”. Gourmets were described by Brillat-Savarin as “generally of medium height with square or round faces, bright eyes, small foreheads, short noses, full lips and well-rounded chins”. We all regarded our neighbours with increased interest.
The first course L’Oreiller du Philosophie – The Philosopher’s Pillow – was a delicious paté in the shape of a pillow elegantly decorated with pastry tassels. It contained hare, venison, pork, bacon, wine, spices and, as our quivering nostrils told us, lots of garlic. With it we drank an Alsatian Gewurztraminer made not too far from Bellay.
Our sponsor told us, the next course, pike, was frequently mentioned by our mentor. The fish had been rolled in flour, sautéed in butter and cooked in the oven with white wine and mushrooms. Unfortunately, however, it seems that though the English rivers teem with pike, English pike are not to be bought. This fish has to come from Ireland and the Staff House had not been able to obtain enough. The secretary was well placed and very much enjoyed his pike, but some members had to make do with a lesser fish. The wine was Bourgogne Aligoté
Brillat-Savarin and our sponsor rose to their most sublime heights on the subject of pheasant. It should be stuffed with wood cock, ox marrow, bacon, herbs and truffle. The livers, mixed with bacon, truffle, anchovy and butter should be spread on a crouton on which the bird is roasted. When it is cooked it should be served “gracefully reclining on its bed of toast”. We don’t know if the Staff House were able to follow the recipe exactly, but it was delicious. The philosopher observed when he served the dish to a group of judges of the Supreme Court that “the noses of those venerable men were agitated by marked olfactory twitchings, that their august brows shone with calm serenity”. At our dinner similar reactions were to be seen on every side. With the dish Brillat-Savarin suggested that a suitable wine would be one from North Burgundy. Our Fixin, les Hervelets, 1967, comes from the most northerly vineyard of the Cote de Nuits.
Brillat-Savarin has a whole chapter about an impoverished French emigre aristocrat called d’Albignac who set up as a fashionable salad maker in London. He went round the houses of the rich with his servant carrying a special mahogany case containing all his seasonings and in 1815 was able to return to France with the considerable fortune of 80,000 francs. Unfortunately, he doesn’t give the exact recipe. Nevertheless, we had an excellent salad with a coddled egg dressing to which was added a little soy sauce.
Our Sponsor then quoted another aphorism. “Dessert without cheese is like a pretty woman with only one eye”. Although some of the younger members were quite intrigued by the pretty woman with one eye, we had cheese: Bresse bleu, Reblochon and a nice goat. With it we continued to eat the old-fashioned French country bread that had been specially flown from a country district in Belgium, where such bread is still baked.
The Professor, as Brillat-Savarin sometimes called himself, liked the cleansing effect of fruit at the end of a meal. We had peaches in brandy, russet apples and grapes. On the subject of grapes, our sponsor told us his last anecdote: the story of a heavy drinker who did not eat grapes as he was “not in the habit of taking his wine in the form of pills”.
With our coffee, a drink of which Brillat-Savarin did not really approve, we drank eau de vie de marc.
The chairman then thanked the sponsor for his very interesting remarks and congratulated him on the excellent dinner.
There were present 50 members and one guest as follows:
J. Hathaway, A.B. Barman, Col. C.B. Grey, R.S. King-Farlow, R.E. Threlfall, C.L. Chatwin, Dr. A.C. Houghton, P.C. Hordern, J. Manson, H.G.V. Milward, H.P. Chatwin, W.L. Barrows, D. Byrne, S. Walker, M. Roberts, C. King-Farlow, C.J. Firmstone, D. Salberg, R.N. Wadsworth, J. Warton, W.R. Doherty, E.S. Russell, W.E.C. Stuart, R.E. Moore, J. Osborne, C. Hawkins, H. Huntington-Whitely, G.C. Barrow, M.V. Manzoni, T.J.B. Spencer, Prof. J. Osborne, S.V. Lancaster, M. Horton, A.G.W. Whitfield, G. Austin, J.P.H Walker, F.E. Pardoe, N. Hawkes, M. Fea, E.F. Briscoe, P. Feeny, C.P. Norbury, J.M. Malins, L. Hargreaves-Beare, F. Bell Scott, O. Hahn, P.R. Connolly, G.S. Atkinson, A.B. Taylor, G.C. Trentham, G.J.W. Turner
