Certainly a highly extravagant composer known for his wit and inimitable puns, Satie, judging from his correspondence, enjoyed an ambiguous relationship with the culinary arts. In an article dealing with the topic, "The art of the table" (mentioned in the writings collected by Ornella Volta, the great specialist of the velvet gentleman) he wrote: "Personally I have always had the greatest admiration, an unbounded admiration actually, for the culinary arts. I am far from indifferent to a good meal. I would even say that I have a sort of respect for it, and maybe more [...] For me, eating is naturally a duty--a pleasant, festive duty--and I really want to perform this duty with exactitude and due attention. My appetite is good and I eat for myself, without selfishness or the urge to wolf things down. In other words, 'My posture is better at a table than on horseback'--even though I ride rather well. [...] During a meal I play a central role: I am a table guest just as at the theatre some people are spectators. Yes... the spectator has a well-defined role: he listens and sees; the guest eats and drinks. In a way it's the same thing--in spite of all the differences between the two roles.
"Dishes that require a calculated virtuosity or a discriminating science to make are not the ones that hold my 'taste' attention. In art, I love simplicity just as I do in food. I will applaud the well-done roast more than the meat lost under the ingenious layers made by a sauce master--if you don't mind my saying so."

Trois morceaux en forme de poire
In 1903, Satie composed a piano piece for four hands entitled "Trois morceaux en forme de poire avec une manière de commencement, une prolongation du même et un en plus, suivi d'une redite," which despite the title is actually five pieces. For Satie, the number three had a predominant importance: it was a sort of golden mean. All of the Master of Arcueil's humorous period works come in threes. Anne Rey explains in Satie, published in Seuil's Solfèges collection: "It has been proven that Satie related the symbolism of the number three to a specific way of making music and listening to it in an attitude that must be qualified as mystical."