Food Quote by John Keegan
““One of Picton's officers fell asleep the instant the halt was sounded and did not think of food until later in the night, when he woke to eat some chops cooked in the breastplate of a dead cuirassier (meat fried in a breastplate was very much à la mode in the Waterloo campaign, rather as rats spitted on a bayonet were to be in 1871 or champagne exhumed from chateau gardens in 1914).””
About This Quote
Source Book: The Face of Battle by John Keegan, 1976
A vivid anecdote illustrating the absurdity and improvisation of soldiers in wartime, highlighting how extreme conditions force bizarre culinary solutions.
In simple terms: Soldiers improvise food in war.
Key Takeaway
Adapt and survive with limited resources.
Themes
war
survival
improvisation
absurdity
Mood
darkly humorous
reflective
Type
historical
anecdotal
When to use this quote
- battlefield rations
- morale
- resource scarcity
- historical anecdotes
Key Concepts
military history
human behavior
cultural practices
Questions to Reflect On
- What does this story reveal about soldier resilience?
- How do extreme conditions reshape everyday norms?
A Different Perspective
Such extreme improvisation may be romanticized, overlooking the suffering involved.
![“Hitler ... lacked the [inclination] for anything more than the occasional sensational display of emotion, in particular the great set-piece speech which mesmerized the mob and left him drained of ... energy.” quote by John Keegan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/cd3/john-keegan-14504_display_hitler-lacked-the-inclination-for-anythi_97177.jpg)
![“[S]ometimes, when you are a food person, the possible irrelevance of what you are doing doesn’t cross your mind until it’s too late. (Once, for example, when I was just starting out in the food business, I was hired by the caper people to develop a lot of recipes using capers, and it was weeks of…” quote by Nora Ephron](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/d79/nora-ephron-1217_business_s-ometimes-when-you-are-a-food-person-th_980.jpg)
