BETWEEN MEALS

From "whacking lunches" to "glorious dinners" experienced by the author and not in de luxe or recommended restaurants — this is a pursuit of specialties in foods and wines, in cooking and menus, started in his student days at the Sorbonne and continued to the present. With playwright Yves Mirande, of the old school eating, as a mentor, he had a stout preparation for the years of exploration, discovery and testing to come and to follow the decline of French cooking before and after WW II. There are many peripheral areas into which his demanding palate led him —membership in a rowing club, boxing, diet, friendships and travel, which are part of this story, but the main course is composed of the various dishes, their cooks who were usually the hosts, and the development of perceptive voracity. An accompaniment of lipsmacking is in order for this recall of ailments which makes quite a bill of fare for anyone with a taste for "good food and good bottles".