The host took care to produce one or another of these whenever the current subjects seemed about used up, so that the conversation gathered new life and at the same time steered clear of political arguments, which are hindersome to both ingestion and digestion.

Between them two writers effectively founded the whole genre of the gastronomic essay. For the cheese from Normandy see Brillat-Savarin cheese
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1 April 1755 Belley Ain – 2 February 1826 Paris) was a French lawyer and politician and gained fame as an epicure and gastronome: "Grimod and Brillat-Savarin.