THE ART OF DINING; OR, GASTRONOMY & GASTRONOMERS BY ABRAHAM HAYWARD 1852 FIRST EDITION

THE ART OF DINING; OR, GASTRONOMY & GASTRONOMERS BY ABRAHAM HAYWARD 1852 FIRST EDITION

£195.00

Tax included.

[HAYWARD, Abraham]. The Art of Dining; or, Gastronomy and Gastronomers. London: John Murray, 1852.

First edition; leather-bound; hardcover; octavo (17cm x 10.5cm x 1.5cm); pp. vi, 137, [1] publisher's advertisements; English text; bound in half leather; smooth spine gilt; marbled boards; green endpapers; printed footnotes; rear appendix. Condition: GOOD to VERY GOOD. Binding secure, light rubbing to extremities, interior lightly toned, private owner bookplate to front pastedown. Scarce first edition.

Notes: Abraham Hayward (1801-1884) was a man of letters who contributed to the New Monthly, the Foreign Quarterly, the Quarterly Review and the Edinburgh Review. A member of numerous London clubs, including the Athenaeum, he had a prominent reputation as a connoisseur of fine food and fine dining, well-known for hosting recherché dinners for London's intellectual and fashionable elite. In the present work, Hayward explores a range of gastronomical subjects, including 'the gastronomic effects of the French Revolution', an 'account of the principal Restaurants of Paris, with the names of the best Dishes and Wines at each', the 'comparative merits of male and female cooks', the 'origin of the "Cordon Bleu"', a 'catalogue raisonnée of the principal cooks in Great Britain, with the names of their past and present employers', the 'importance of good vegetables', 'reflections on hams and salads', 'speculations touching pies and puddings', and much else besides, plus an appendix containing 'sundry choice recipes and bills of fare'.