“Let us fast, then–whenever we see fit, and as strenuously as we should. But having gotten that exercise out of the way, let us eat. Festally, first of all, for life without occasions is not worth living. but ferially, too, for life is so much more than occasions, and its grand ordinariness must never go unsavored. … Between the dietmongers and the prepared-food hawkers, we are in danger of losing the greater part of our heritage. … O Lord, refresh our sensibilities. Give us this day our daily taste. Restore to us soups that spoons will not sink in, and sauces which are never the same twice. Raise up among us stews with more gravy than we have bread to blot it with, and casseroles that put starch and substance in our limp modernity. Take away our fear of fat, and make us glad of the oil which ran upon Aaron’s beard. Give us pasta with a hundred fillings, and rice in a thousand variations. Above all, give us grace to live as true men–to fast till we come to a refreshed sense of what we have and then to dine gratefully on all that comes to hand. …deliver us from the fear of calories and the bond of nutrition; and set us free once more in our own land, where we shall serve thee as thou hast blessed us–with the dew of heaven, the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine. Amen.” –Robert Farrar Capon