Joyeux Thanksgiving!

Whether you're pilgrim or Indian, pumpkin pie or pecan, dark meat or white, football fan or kitchen junkie, marshmallow sweet potatoes or plain, happy Thanksgiving! I'm off to Aveyron for a bit of book research but I'll be back next week with tales of amazing, elastic aligot.

In the meantime, as you begin to prepare your free-range, organic, herb-rubbed, kosher bird for the oven, I leave you with two quotes from the 18th-century French food lover and philosopher Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin:

"The fate of nations depends on the way they eat."

and

"A man can become a cook, but he has to be born a rôtisseur."

Happy turkey day, tout le monde!