'I went into a milk-house; they brought me some cream-cheese curds and whey, and two slices of that excellent Piedmont bread, which I prefer to any other; and for five or six sous I had one of the most delicious meals I ever recollect to have made.' Thus Rousseau in his Confessions, where he also writes about his liking for pears, his fear of pastry shops, his fondness for starting the day with milky coffee and his preference for simple, 'rustic repasts': 'give me milk, vegetables, eggs and brown bread, with tolerable wine and I shall always think myself sumptuously regaled.'

LRB 25 June 2009 | PDF Download