ABSTRACT
When Brillat-Savarin claimed that he could identify someone from the food she or he consumed he was linking the axiom “you are what you eat” to national stereotypes. He was able to do this because food preferences tend to be culturally speci? c. Using the same premise Peter Farb and George Armelagos claim that
the French subtlety of thought and manners is said to be related to the subtlety of their cuisine, the reserve of the British to their unimaginative diet, German stolidness to the quantities of heavy food they consume, and the unreliability of the Italians to the large amounts of wine they drink.4
