Soyer's Culinary Campaign: Being Historical Reminiscences of the Late War.: With The Plain Art of Cookery for Military and Civil Institutions

I found in the Fourth Division the same welcome and urbanity I had received in the First. I shall ever be grateful to Colonel Halliwell, who, by the bye, is a very distinguished artist and a discriminating epicure. Excuse the remark, dear reader, but a man, as I have already remarked in my _Regenerator_, may be either a gourmet or a gourmand, but never both: “car le gourmand n’est jamais gourmet; l’un mange sans déguster, l’autre déguste en mangeant.” The gourmet is the Epicurean dilettante, who eats scientifically and with all his organs--ears, of course, included. The gourmand’s stomach alone acts; he swallows all that is put before him, never praises the culinary artist, and seldom complains of the quality of the food, but frequently of the want of quantity. Therefore, gourmets, epicures, high-livers, and wealthy merchants, who are gifted with a fine intellect, never allow yourselves to be called a gourmand if you are really deserving of the title of gourmet--and this title I confidently bestow upon my honourable friend Colonel Halliwell, who was not only a gourmet, but also a very good amateur cook. I defy any one to make a better mayonnaise, not even excepting professionals. The plan I had adopted for the introduction of my stoves was as follows:--I first had an interview with the colonel of the regiment, who introduced me to the quartermaster--the latter to the storekeeper. Then I went to the commissariat in each division, where I looked over the stores, in order to regulate the distribution of the provisions and condiments with judgment and according to common sense.[22] To remedy this evil in a private family would only require a few minutes’ conversation with the cook; while in an army it would take years, as military rules would have to be changed and fresh ones introduced. Simple as the change may appear, it is still very difficult to carry out, particularly in a camp extending over such a large space of ground. Fortunately, I was invested with the power of doing so without troubling the authorities: nevertheless, it was only by the