The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-10-28
A CHAIR OF GASTRONOMYy

| has made In most things CONDUCIVE to comfor
and luxury are not more wonderful than it
neglect Of some of the arts absolutely essen
tial to human health, happiness and longevi
ty. Among the most notable of these neg
lected arts is that ogcookery. While we hay.
built railroads apd telegraphs. made wonder
full discoveries in science and inventions II
mechanics, accumulated wealth, adorned on
cities and made luxurious our homes; Will,
we haye devised everything that ingenuity
could invent or wealth purchase to make
g@udy our exterior surroundings, we have
fcontinued as uncomfortable and miserable as
| our progenitors. and simply because we have
failed TO intelligently cultivate that art. OF
rather science upon which more than
| upon all other things the health
and happiness of our being depend
Indeed, so far from cultivating and develop
ing that science, we have permitted it to de-
generate into wretched sort of necromancy,
practiced by stupid and ignorant creatures.
who convert the rich and delicious viands
God has provided for our consumption into
greasy. indigestible and diaboical connections
which we must swallow or starve to death.
II 1t be true that the hum ! race is deterio-
rating under our civilization. it is because
there are so few cooks who understand the
science they pretend to practice DYSPEPSIA,
cholera morbus, indigestion and multitude
OF other diseases which scourge civilized
society are aggravated, If not caused. by bad
cooking. Is there any man of middle age
who has not noticed that there are now fewer
beautiful and robust women on the streets
and in society than there were when he was
young and sentimental man? What Is the
cause of this decline Of female beauty
Undoubtedly bad cooking; indigestible food;
grease, frying pans and heaven knows what
other instruments and concomitants of human
torture
Is it not q recognized fact that men are
more irritable, impatient and miserable than
they were formerly2 What Is the reason
Bad cooking and irregular meals. And we
might go on and enumerate all the miseries
OF our present civilization and refer them,
without the fear of contradiction, to this one
cooking.
II them as is obvious, all the misery of our
age Is traceable to this evil, is it not time that
nay, tho press and legisla-
tors of the country were taking steps to
remedy it? We certainly think 50; and,
thinking thus, we have given the subject
much thought. We have written some
what thereon, and our city editor
has essayed in q feeble but Intellectual
way to say something about the subject.
Of course we do not wish to dictate; but it
seems to US that the best, in fact the only way
TO remedy this terrible evil, which is preying
upon the vitals of society, Is to elevate cook
cry into one of the learned sciences; estab-
fish chair of gastronomy in all our colleges,
male and female, and place the practice Of
cookery on a level with, if not above the prac
tice of theology, law and medicine. 1t should
In justice be superior in rank and esteem to
Ill these, for it would prevent many or
nearly all the evils these are desired to cor
rect.
Hungry or ill-fed people, people with their
5tomachs full of boarding house hash, hotel
fried beef, restaurant slop soup, are naturally
inclined to wickedness of all descriptions.
However piously they may be inclined, they
cannot, with their stOmachs thus surcharged |
Or empty, preserve that serenity of mind and
temper which elevates and sanctifies our |
'allen nature. Hence, Ii we had cooks thor
lughly trained in their science there would be |
infinitely less labor for the preachers, for
here would be infinitely less sin in the
world. In the second place, if people |
we're well fed with delicious, well cooked
food there would be fewer law SUITS |
fewer robberies, fewer murders, etc. Men
thus fed are disposed to be kindly and con-
tent, and kind and contented people are will |
ing to settle all disputes amcably and they
seldom commit criminal excesses. Hence
good cooking would prevent most Of the dis
agreeable things which it is necessary to
have lawyers and courts to SETTLE
Finally, rs to doctors: Furnish mankind
with an abundance Of healthful and we'll
cooked food and three-fourths of their prac-
ice would be swept away. Most of our hos
oitals would be closed up or refitted and
rented out for boarding houses, and nine
5enths of our druggists would go into bank
,uptcy.
Why then, in view of these facts, should |
not the science of cookery, in its highest de- |
rank with theology law and med |
cine, the sciences which are designed merely |
% cure or palliate the evils it would almost |
entirely prevent?
And further, why should not the cook be |
'anked in the highest ranks of artists as well |
IS in those of scientist? We have noticed the |
lecline of female beauty and referred 1t to bad |
cookery. Let our colleges and universities |
urnish us with thoroughly educated cooks, |
md the beauty Of the next generation will be
increased nay, the sharp harsh
ines of thousands of faces which every day
meet us in the street will be softened and
oned into beauty when that wonderful lab
tory of the human system, the stomach, is
applied with proper material, which it can,
Without violence and misery, work up.
The business of the artist is merely to copy
ature, but here we find that the high and
oly work of the cook is to sustain nature, to
reserve and nourish the beauty which the
'reator, with loving tenderness, has formed
nth His own hands to bless and enchant the
,orld Why thnn will not the comiuo cooly |