Gastronomy

[2][3] Archestratus wrote a guide to the foods of the Mediterranean in the form of a poem called "Gastronomy", according to Chrysippus of Tyana; only fragmentary quotations remain.

[7] Gastronomy involves discovering, tasting, experiencing, researching, understanding and writing about food preparation and the sensory qualities of human nutrition as a whole.

Alexandre Grimod de La Reynière wrote the gastronomic work Almanach des gourmands (1803), elevating the status of food discourse to a disciplined level based on his views of French tradition and morals.

The invention of gastronomic literature coincided with important cultural transformations in France that increased the relevance of the subject.

The culinary commentary of Grimod and other gastronomes influenced the tastes and expectations of consumers in an unprecedented manner as a third party to the consumer-chef interaction.

Pascal Ory criticizes this literature as conceptually vague; relying heavily on anecdotal evidence; and using confusing, poorly defined terminology.

[5] The derivative gourmet has come into use since the publication of Physiology of Taste (Physiologie du goût) an 1825 cooking treatise by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, a lawyer and politician who aimed to define classic French cuisine.