Dish - SoFAB's newest iterary adventure

Ready for a book club that focuses on the culinary arts? Consider Dish.

Dish meets at noon on the third Saturday of each month at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, in the Riverwalk Marketplace Shopping Center near the Food Court.

The Physiology of Taste, the collection of recipes, experiences, reflections, history and philosophy by French gastronome Jean-Anthleme Brillat Savarin, is the first choice of the newly created book club of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. The first meeting of the club will occur at noon on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2009.

We decided to start with the book that pretty much created culinary literature as we know it. The Physiology of Taste really had no precedent – it was a new creature that consisted of Brillat-Savarin’s food experiences and anecdotes in which gastronomy is raised to the level of art.

The Physiology of Taste contains Brillat-Savarin’s views on taste, diet, maintaining a healthy weight, digestion, sleep and dreams, and on being a gourmand. The book was published in France in 1825.

Brillat-Savarin is the man who famously said, "Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are." He led quite a life and produced this classic just a few months before he died. This is a great work that is much easier to read than one would imagine, and it provides a grounding for the other works to be read during the year.

The book can be found in any bookstore but also is available online and can be downloaded at no cost.

Readers of all stripes are welcome to read book club selections and to attend meetings. Admission to book club meetings is free to SoFAB members; $10 for non-members.

Attendees are encouraged to bring their own food to meetings. The Riverwalk Food Court is just steps away. In some cases, food events also will occur at the museum.

Participants also are encouraged to sign on in advance for book club meetings.

For more information, contact Chris Smith coordinator of the book club, at chris@southernfood.org.