Etiquette Weighed Over Dieters

“I am sorry to appear inhospitable, but my housekeeper and cook cannot arrange to cater for any guest who is obliged to diet” – The Duchess of Marlborough 

Dieting Fad has Become an Etiquette Trial: Some Physical Culturistes are Nuisances and

Hostesses Grow Weary with the Lack of Manners

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Some Announce Their Servants Cannot Arrange to Cater for Cranky Guests

Special Cable from LONDON— So great a trial has the dieting fad become that a number of well known English and American hostesses here have put their heads together, and have changed etiquette and drawn up a paragraph which is printed and sent out with invitations for week ends or otherwise to country houses. It runs thus: “I am sorry to appear inhospitable, but my housekeeper and cook cannot arrange to cater for any guest who is obliged to diet”

The truth is, for months past, the food faddist and the follower of the simpler life have given no end of trouble in other people's houses, and servants, who are all autocrats in these days, have decided that they won't put up any longer with the one or the other. Were the food faddists all to take the same menus, they might be tolerated, but it involves complications to feed at the same table the carnivorous, graminivorous and frugivorous.

The young Duchess of Marlborough is known among her friends for her extreme good nature, and the story is told against her that recently at Blenheim she had no fewer than nine “cranks” sitting at her table, each of whom had to be supplied with a totally different class of food. One thrived upon a monkey-like repast of nuts and raisins; another devoured Grapenuts and cream, a third swallowed quarts of boiling water with semi-cooked minced beef, a fourth was convinced that death lurked for her in anything which contained starch and sugar. Another, sipped fearful and wonderful concoctions in which vegetables had been stewed, and so on. Is it any wonder that, even the Duchess’ good nature gave way? – The Los Angeles Herald, 1906

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Etiquette from Brillat Savarin's “The Physiology of Taste"

A French born lawyer and politician, (1783-1833) writer Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin gained his fame as an epicure and gastronome and helped found the genre of the gastronomic essay. He made famous the aphorism, "Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you who you are." He believed that food defined a nation. 

APHORISMS OF THE PROFESSOR- 

TO SERVE AS PROLEGOMENA TO HIS WORK AND ETERNAL BASIS TO THE SCIENCE...

"The Creator, when he obliges man to eat, invites him to do so by appetite, and rewards him by pleasure."

I. The universe would be nothing were it not for life and all that lives must be fed.

II. Animals fill themselves; man eats. The man of mind alone knows how to eat.

III. The destiny of nations depends on the manner in which they are fed.

IV. Tell me what kind of food you eat, and I will tell you what kind of man you are.

V. The Creator, when he obliges man to eat, invites him to do so by appetite, and rewards him by pleasure.

VI. Gourmandise is an act of our judgment, in obedience to which, we grant a preference to things which are agreeable, over those which have not that quality.                   

The drunkenness of Noah :"Those persons who suffer from indigestion, or who become drunk, are utterly ignorant of the true principles of eating and drinking."

VII. The pleasure of the table belongs to all ages, to all conditions, to all countries, and to all areas; it mingles with all other pleasures, and remains at last to console us for their departure.

VIII. The table is the only place where one does not suffer, from ennui during the first hour.

IX. The discovery of a new dish confers more happiness on humanity, than the discovery of a new star.

X. Those persons who suffer from indigestion, or who become drunk, are utterly ignorant of the true principles of eating and drinking.
             

"A dessert without cheese is like a beautiful woman who has lost an eye."

XI. The order of food is from the most substantial to the lightest.

XII. The order of drinking is from the mildest to the most foamy and perfumed.

XIII. To say that we should not change our drinks is a heresy; the tongue becomes saturated, and after the third glass yields but an obtuse sensation.

XIV. A dessert without cheese is like a beautiful woman who has lost an eye.

XV. A cook may be taught, but a man who can roast, is born with the faculty.

XVI. The most indispensable quality of a good cook is promptness. It should also be that of the guests.

XVII. To wait too long for a dilatory guest, shows disrespect to those who are punctual.

XVIII. He who receives friends and pays no attention to the repast prepared for them, is not fit to have friends.

XIX. The mistress of the house should always be certain that the coffee be excellent; the master that his liquors be of the first quality.

XX. To invite a person to your house is to take charge of his happiness as long as he be beneath your roof.

From Brillat Savarin's “The Physiology of Taste," 1825