Note 68 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
Mr. Rouquet, enamel painter to the King of France, in his book on The Present State of the Arts in England, printed for Nourse in 1755, after enumerating chasing, engraving, painting, sculpture, architecture, etc., as arts that are practised in England, concludes with a chapter on the Art of Cookery, which he thus gravely introduces:—
"There is an art, the only one that can justly pretend to unite pleasure with absolute utility; but this art, born in servitude, to which it is still condemned, notwithstanding its extreme importance, is reckoned ignoble, for which reason some perhaps will be surprised at seeing me give it a place in this work; I mean the art of preparing aliments."