Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

(1755 - 1826)

A lawyer chosen for the National Assembly in 1789, Anthelme Brillat-Savarin fled the Reign of Terror, traveling to Switzerland, Holland, and then the U.S., where he taught French and music. He returned to France in 1796 and became an appellate judge, often writing The Physiology of Taste, an influential culinary work, while behind the bench. In all he spent around twenty-five years writing the book, only to publish it anonymously at his own expense shortly before his death. Closing this landmark work of gastronomy, he exhorted his readers, “Go forward in all your strength and mightiness; the whole edible world is open before you.” He died of pneumonia two weeks after attending the thirty-third anniversary of Louis XVI’s beheading.