Cuisine is an Art
One of the central themes of this book is the insistence that the culinary arts is truly an art. The narrative is an insistent demand that the preparation of cuisine is genuinely an artistic endeavor. Cuisine is to taste, the book argues, what painting is to sight, or music is to hearing. Because cooking is an art, therefore, it follows that not every meal is a true work of art. This divergence between the sensory attention given to the preparation of a meal is the differentiation between weekend painters and Leonardo da Vinci. Cuisine, not cooking, is an art.
French Superiority
One could even argue that mere cuisine is not art. It is only French cuisine that is capable of reaching such heights of artistry. The bulk of this book is comprised of extensive descriptions of the preparation of French cuisine. The narrative extends beyond the description of food to insinuate that the preparation of food is only half the aspect of what makes it an art. Just as an artist wastes his talent creating a masterpiece that cannot be appreciated on an elevated plane, so is a magnificent feast just another meal to those who cannot appreciate the artistry of its preparation. The book pursues a distinctly nationalistic theme by proposing that the French are superior when it comes to recognizing gastronomic artistry as much as preparing it for being consumed.
German Inferiority
One chapter is titled "Dodin and the Barbarians" and it is all about the protagonist going to Germany and partaking in German cuisine. This circumstance is necessitated by an illness that requires a dubious "water cure" in Baden-Baden. The title alone suggests the thematic trek through this section of the book. The "Barbarians" represent Germany through the filter of a cuisine considered antagonistically inferior to the French alternative. This theme is underlined by the fact that this book was written when tensions between France and Germany were still based primarily upon the conflict known at the time as The Great War. Those tensions would continue unabated until that conflict became known by a new name: World War I. In this way, the book presents an interesting thematic dynamic of the long-simmering cultural and nationalistic differences keeping European countries in a state of constant wariness of the presumed barbarity of any country not their own.
