The Fitzhughs all had a natural talent for cooking, and chief among them was Isabella, wife of a naval officer,--Lieutenant Swift of Geneva,--who had made a profound study of all the authorities from Archestratus, a poet in Syracuse, the most famous cook among the Greeks, down to our own Miss Leslie.
Accordingly she was elected manager of the occasion, and to each one was assigned the specialty in which she claimed to excel.

Those who had no specialty were assistants to those who had.

In this humble office--"assistant at large"-- I labored throughout.
Cooking is a high art.

A wise Egyptian said, long ago: "The degree of taste and skill manifested by a nation in the preparation of food may be regarded as to a very considerable extent proportioned to its culture and refinement." In early times men, only, were deemed capable of handling fire, whether at the altar or the hearthstone.

We read in the Scriptures that Abraham prepared cakes of fine meal and a calf tender and good, which, with butter and milk, he set before the three angels in the plains of Mamre.