Female cooks in Paris are sometimes called cordons hleus, from the supposed order which one of their predecessors is related to have received from a King of France. Two theatrical authors. Messieurs Brasier and de Demassan, are related to have passed some incautious observations on the order in one of their plays, which tlie cooks took notice of ; for a long time they were revengefully treated in various ways, they being kept under the fear of having their meals mixed with deleterious ingredients. Tlie passions of many persons became roused, and caused them to take part for or against female cooks. Of such a one, who was in the service of Madame du Deffant, and, although she stood in the odour of sanctity, was a very had cook, the President Henault is reported to have said that the only difference between her and (the poisoner) Brinvilliers was in the intention. The chief butler of a great or royal house was termed hWRODUCTION OF SPOONS, KNIVES AND FORKS 633 <j rand sommelier,* hence the buttery, or pantry, was called sommellerie. With the quality of the manual service at dinner rose the perfection of the apparatus for its consumption. The ancients ate xoith the right hand, with which they fetched the single morsels out of the common dish. Sauces were taken up with pieces of bread. As dipping of the fingers into hot dishes became painful, Eoman dandies and gourmets put on gloves expressly for being able to eat their viands hotter than they could by the ordinary method. The use of spoons, other than of bread, of forks and knives at the dinner-table by the diners was entirely unknown. The earliest progress from fetching the food with the fingers to transferring it to the mouth with the aid of simple tools was made by the Chinese, who, to this day, throughout all classes of society, eat their solid food with thin wooden rods from six to eight inches long, called chop- sticks, and manage them with admirable dexterity. The table implements of Europe find little sympathy amongst them. The introduction of spools, knives, and forks^ as tools for eating food began about the sixteenth century. When spoons and forks began to be used at Venice, notably by the wife of a son of the Doge Peter Orseleolo, she was censured for this ‘ insensate luxury ’ by one Peter Damian, an ecclesiastic, and the vengeance of Heaven was called down upon her and her husband by the fakir. As both husband and wife died of the plague, Peter Damian thought he had been heard by his revenging god ; but his * Of. Kitchiner, loc. cit., p. 42, note. + The English people are indebted to Tom Coryat for introducing the fork, for which boon somebody gave him the sobri(juet of Fiircifer (from /urea (pitch-), fork, and yb?’0, 1 bear). .Sec his ‘ Crudities,’ l(ill edition, in ‘Letters from India,’ 3 vols., Svo., 1776, vol. i., p. 106. Ex Kitchinor, lor., cit., p. 32, note. 6^4 THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY declamation did not arrest the progress of forks and spoons over the entire globe.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Female cooks in Paris are sometimes called cordons bleus, from the supposed order which one of their predecessors is related to have received from a King of France. Two theatrical authors, Messieurs Brasier and de Demassan, are related to have passed some incautious observations on the order in one of their plays, which the cooks took notice of; for a long time they were revengefully treated in various ways, they being kept under the fear of having their meals mixed with deleterious ingredients. The passions of many persons became roused, and caused them to take part for or against female cooks. Of such a one, who was in the service of Madame du Deffant, and, although she stood in the odour of sanctity, was a very bad cook, the President Henault is reported to have said that the only difference between her and (the poisoner) Brinvilliers was in the intention. The chief butler of a great or royal house was termed grand sommelier,* hence the buttery, or pantry, was called sommellerie. With the quality of the manual service at dinner rose the perfection of the apparatus for its consumption. The ancients ate with the right hand, with which they fetched the single morsels out of the common dish. Sauces were taken up with pieces of bread. As dipping of the fingers into hot dishes became painful, Roman dandies and gourmets put on gloves expressly for being able to eat their viands hotter than they could by the ordinary method. The use of spoons, other than of bread, of forks and knives at the dinner-table by the diners was entirely unknown. The earliest progress from fetching the food with the fingers to transferring it to the mouth with the aid of simple tools was made by the Chinese, who, to this day, throughout all classes of society, eat their solid food with thin wooden rods from six to eight inches long, called chopsticks, and manage them with admirable dexterity. The table implements of Europe find little sympathy amongst them. The introduction of spoons, knives, and forks* as tools for eating food began about the sixteenth century. When spoons and forks began to be used at Venice, notably by the wife of a son of the Doge Peter Orseleolo, she was censured for this 'insensate luxury' by one Peter Damian, an ecclesiastic, and the vengeance of Heaven was called down upon her and her husband by the fakir. As both husband and wife died of the plague, Peter Damian thought he had been heard by his revenging god ; but his * Cf. Kitchiner, loc. cit., p. 42, note. * The English people are indebted to Tom Coryat for introducing the fork, for which boon somebody gave him the sobriquet of Furcifer (from furca (pitch-fork), fork, and fero, I bear). See his 'Crudities,' folio edition, in 'Letters from India,' 3 vols., 8vo., 1776, vol. i., p. 106. Ex Kitchiner, loc. cit., p. 32, note. 6^4 declamation did not arrest the progress of forks and spoons over the entire globe.

The spirit of cookery