Chopin Gourmet

Fryderyk Chopin had a well-defined taste, not only in terms of music. In the circle of family and friends, he would discuss painting and literature. Even interior design tips can be found in his letters. The composer was not indifferent to the pleasures of the table, either.

In August 1824, the fourteen-year-old boy on vacation in the village of Szafarnia reported in a letter to his parents: Chopin drank seven cups of acorn coffee. Expect him to drink eight soon. Did he actually drink eight of them? Letters provide no information.

While staying in Vienna, twenty-year-old Fryderyk did not shy away from solid meals. The Wild Man –that's the name of the excellent inn where we eat– has charged me a whole Rhenish and several Kreutzers for a large appetite for strudeln. The joy was general.

Many Parisian celebrities would invite Chopin round. George Sand even made a satirical drawing in which we see the composer rushing to a dinner party, a few steps at a time.
 

Sometimes the invitation would come from the composer himself. In a letter to Józef Nowakowski, we find the following promise: I'm waiting for you with a decent breakfast or lunch. We'll get drunk for a greeting.
 

My chocolate comes from Bordeaux –Chopin wrote in a letter–, where it's made deliberately without any flavors at a private house owned by cousins ​​of one of my kind pupils who feeds me it. Presumably, Fryderyk would enjoy those gifts from a student very much.

The cardboard candy box once owned by Fryderyk Chopin and lovingly preserved by the composer's family, also reveals he was fond of sweets.

The passion for the pleasures of the table can also be seen in... the metaphor which Chopin uses to finish a letter to his friend: I kept everything back for the dessert, and now there is no other dessert than a hearty embrace, for I have no one but you...