Alexandre Dumas

I confess that nothing frightens me more than the appearance of mushrooms on the table, especially in a small provincial town.

From his 1873 encyclopedia/cookbook, Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine.  Alexandre Dumas -- author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo -- was one of the most widely read authors of his day.  He was also a gourmet and an accomplished cook.  This quote is characteristic of the French in two different ways.  First, its subject is food.  Second, it looks down its nose on small provincial towns.  (Dumas was born in a small town and didn't move to Paris until he was 20 -- in other words, he was a young man from the provinces who tried to conceal his insecurity over his rural origins by sneering at small provincial towns.)

Alexandre Dumas