Ben Schott's Culinary Miscellany Reviewed

Jérôme Lebrun reviews Ben Schott's 'Les Miscellanées culinaires', published by Éditions Allia. The book, a collection of brief texts, instructions, lists, and recipes, is not a celebration of cuisine but an arbitrary arrangement that leaves readers uncertain of the author's intentions. Schott describes it as a small book aiming only to whet gourmets' appetites with a tasting menu. The scope extends beyond strict gastronomy to include topics like egg labeling, Captain Nemo's pantry, meat cooking times, ideal guest numbers, famous vegetarians, Michelin stars, celiac disease, graces, and barrel capacities. Lebrun questions whether Schott seeks to stuff readers with superfluous knowledge, noting Joseph Mouton's earlier observation that this writing plays on the effect of logical hiatus repetition and the resulting melancholic sequence. The book demonstrates that the culinary field admits more than a strictly gastronomic definition allows. Citing Brillat-Savarin's definition of gastronomy as reasoned knowledge of all that relates to humans as they eat, Lebrun argues that Schott's knowledge takes an irrational turn, progressively forgetting the objective function of knowledge and techniques in favor of the pleasure of the text. He notes that in the 17th century, 'ambigu' referred to a cold meal where all dishes were served simultaneously, suggesting the book's avowed ambition may not be the prevailing one.