The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1911-09-23
Cooks and Books Of All Ages
In Rome q Good Culinary Artist Was Worth q Dozen Phil
osophers and 0rammarians

In season-that It was up to its time
1t was In the spirit of the age
that there was no perruque in its
composition, no traces of the wisdom
Of the ancestors In . single dish-no
highly spieed sauces, no brown era.
vies. no flavor Of cayenne OF allspice,
no tincture Of eatsup or walnut pickle,
no visible agency OF those vulgar Gle
ments Of the good old times, IRE and
water. Oscillations Of the most DELI
cate vlands, extracted In silver dsws,
with chemical precision.
On tspid clouds Of steam arising
formed the fond Of all. Every meat
presented Ito own natural ar0ma-ev-
cry vegetable its own shade Of YER
dure; the mayonnaise was fried in
Ice (like Ninon's description of Sew
igne's heart), and the tempered chill
OF the plombiere (Which held the place
OF the eterna fondu and souffles Of our
English tables) anticipated the strong
er shock, and broke It In the exquisite
avalanche which with the hue and
odor Of fresh gathered nectarines,
satisfied every sense and disslpated ev-
cry coarser flavor. With less genius
than went to the composition Of this
dinner men have written epic poems"
Surely such a cook % this Careme
was we'll able TO write that without
the culinary art there would be no
European diplomacy" He knew.
From the early nineteenth back to
the second century II q long Jump.
but there ID practically little literature
OF merit on the subject between the
fWA SNoN4oaa hNhA h1a<nv,> ~ tho N~&na-
i'm would show that: but when we
are back In Rome whore the price Of
. cook was four talents-about the
price Of q dozen philosophers and
gsammarians-we realize We are once
more among civilized and cultured
N ID q curious mistake that Livy
mckes (xxxix. 81 when. lauaenting the
Of luxury among the Ro-
mans, he evidences the high value
placed on cooks and declares that
"the ancients considered them the
meanest Of slaves" On the contrary
Cadmus, the grandfather Of Bacchus.
was q cook-appropriately enough;
the first man who ever was crowned
rs victor in the Olympian games.
GORGEOUS the Elean, was q cook; and
Euphron, the comic poet (fourth CEN
fury b. c., names seven cooks and
their sp~ecialties. who were consider
ed the rivals Of the seven wise men Of
Greece:
Aegts Of Rhodes alone knew how to
A flsh in due perfection; Nereus. too.
OF Chioe, for steWed cOngerS had no
equal;
For from his hands. it was a dish for
the gods.
Then for white thrion. no one could
exceed
Chariades Of Athens; for black broth,
tn invention and perfection g Justly
To Lampris alone; while Aponetus
Was held unriyaled for his sausages.
For lentils. too. Euthynus beat the
world;
And Aristion above the rest
Knew how to suit each guest, with the
same dish
repasts
Where each man paid his share to
deck the board.
After the ancient Sophists. these alone
Were Justly deemed the seven wise
men of Greece.
Without Athenaeus the library of
the gourmet would be incomplete. in
deed, for, that industrious scholar
and gastronome probably knew more
about cooks and cooking, food and
feeding, drinks and drinking, and the
literature thereof than any other man
who ever lived. To him alone we are
indebted for 270 fragments Of the
writing Of Archetratus, the S%yracusan,
who, about the fourth century B. c.,
wandered over the known world study
ing, collecting and observing, and put
the results of his expedition In a poem
entitled "Gastronomy." -,
Athenaeus, like Alexander Dumas,
the elder was fond Of talking things
over at dinner with his favorite cook,
and he had n cook whose pleasure
It was, 1t seems, to appear with a
new dish and apropos of his latest
culinary invention break into a long
and learned disquisition on cooking
and cooks that would simply leave his
employer and the scholarly guests
gasping for air. One of his most anus
ing exploits of this kind Is reported
the extent of three pages by Athen-
aeus, who admits that he had never
heard Of the dish, uvua, which the
cook used as an excuse for his long
harangue. After quoting as much
poetry as he evidently thought safe,
the cook got down to business and
explained to Athenaeus and his guests
that Artemidorius, the pupil Of Aris-
tophantes, spoke of the dish in his
Dictionary Of Cookery, and that Ep-
aenetus, in his Treatise on Cookery,
describes how to make the dish, a de-
scription that. inasmuch as it shows
the dish to have been something Of a
Bouillabaisse, Is worth while repeat
ing:
zone must make uvua Of every
hind oHL animal and hird cutting nm