God bless Las Vegas….for without it, where else would America’s middle class go to pretend they’re sophisticated?

At the end of this month (April) one see the points of asparagus emerge, something which brings a great consolation to those who, tired of potatoes and dried cereals, long for something green. This vegetable, always dear in Paris, and only seemly for the rich because it is not very substantial and somewhat aphrodisiacal, is a very delicate food. The large stalks, cooked in water, are served to be eaten either with a white sauce or with oil. The small ones are served like peas to deceive our hopes and calm our impatience. But so soon as real peas come in one does not dare present them in this guise. It is thus that a beauty with the aid of fine lighting, having stolen our praises flees at the prospect dawn for she dares not risk comparison with an Hebe (young woman) of just eighteen springs. – Grimod de la Reyniere

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What an idiot is man to believe that abstaining from flesh, and eating fish, which is so much more delicate and delicious, constitutes fasting. – Napoleon Bonaparte

Japanese food is very pretty and undoubtedly a suitable cuisine in Japan, which is largely populated by people of below average size. – Fran Lebowitz

Almost every person has something secret he likes to eat. – M. F. K. Fisher

To be a gourmet you must start early, as you must begin riding early to be a good horseman. You must live in France; your father must have been a gourmet. Nothing in life must interest you but your stomach. With hands trembling, you must approach the meal about which you have worried all day and risk dying of a stroke if it isn’t perfect. -  L. Bemelmans

But no doubt the first man that ever murdered an ox was regarded as a murderer; perhaps he was hung; and if he had been put on trial by oxen, he certainly would have been; and he certainly deserved it if any murderer does. Go to the meatmarket of a Saturday night and see the crowds of live bipeds staring up the long rows of dead quadrupeds. Does not that sight take a tooth out of the cannibal’s jaw? Cannibals? Who is not a cannibal? I tell you it will be more tolerable for the Fejee (Fiji) that salted down a lean missionary in his cellar against a coming famine; it will be more tolerable for that provident Fejee, I say, in the day of judgment, than for thee, civilized and enlightened gourmand, who naileth geese to the ground and feasteth on their bloated livers in thy paté-de-foie-gras. – Herman Melville, 1819-1891, Moby Dick

My idea of heaven is, eating pâtés de foie gras to the sound of trumpets. – Sydney Smith, 1771-1845

Bouillabaisse, de-constructed, at Le Cirque

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Fish must swim thrice — once in water, a second time in the sauce, and a third time in wine in the stomach. – John Ray, 1627-1705, English Proverbs

Criticism, as was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant as a standard of judging well. – Samuel Johnson

On tasting wine: A good general rule is to state that the bouquet is better than the taste, and vice versa. – Stephen Potter, One-upsmanship (1952)

Excellent wine generates enthusiasm. And whatever you do with enthusiasm is generally successful. – Philippe de Rothschild

What is the definition of a good wine? It should start and end with a smile. – William Sokolin