Food and Flavor

Henry Theophilus Finck (1854-1926) was an American writer and music critic who was a leading promoter in the United States of Richard Wagner and his musical theories. Born in Bethel, Missouri, and raised in Portland, Oregon, he was taught piano and violoncello, and instructed himself in Latin and Greek so thoroughly that he was able to enter Harvard as a sophomore in 1872 where he studied philosophy, the classics, and music, graduating in 1876. In that year he attended the Bayreuth Festival, writing accounts for newspapers and magazines. Having been awarded the Harris fellowship from Harvard, he spent three years from 1878-81 in the study of physiological psychology in Berlin, Heidelberg and Vienna. Upon his return to the US in 1881 he became musical editor of the New York Evening Post and was on the editorial staff of the associated journal The Nation, remaining connected with both for 40 years. While at The Post he also served as the epicurean editor and reviewed all the new garden books. This work, subtitled A Gastronomic Guide to Health and Good Living, was first published in 1913 with illustrations by Charles S. Chapman together with photographs. Siting the French as the nation with the best understanding of the vital importance to health and happiness of raising only the best foodstuffs, cooking them in savory ways and eating them with intelligence and pleasure, Finck asserts that America has the material for the making of an even more gastronomic nation than the French, and that Americans, especially if caught young, can be taught to eat in a leisurely way and to refuse to accept anything that lacks appetizing flavor. In preparation for writing the book he made a gastronomic tour of Europe, gathering first hand information in the market places, gardens and restaurants of France, Italy, Germany and England. Finck also stresses the importance of understanding that cookery is both a science and an art.