In the ancient Greece

Moderately

The Greeks deemed the moment of a meal an occasion to nourish not simply the body, but even the spirit. Their moderation, anyway, did not prevent them from trips in the fields of experiments and novelties. They started mixing different substances and food, trying to compensate strong flavours. The Greeks introduced the use of oil and vinegar, considered therapeutic. They soothed or extolled flavours through essences and honey, while some spices started to pop out from the Middle East or Africa. Amongst the cereals peaked the use of barley, usually boiled, but time going by, wheat growing carried along yeast bread production.

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In the ancient Rome

From frugality to abundance

At the beginning of Roman civilisation, Romans' cuisine was surely frugal. We cannot forget that Roman civilisation stemmed from an agricultural little village. But contacts with The Great Greece gave the start to an evolution of new crops and, consequently, new preparations. The basis of alimentation was mostly, to begin with, cereal-based polenta, with barley, millet and spelt on top. Salt was seldom used, because of its cost and preciousness; at times cereals were boiled in sea water. Meat wasn't much, especially pork, and was prepared for celebration days. Polentas could be enriched by cheese, honey or eggs. Time going by, with the conquests and the chance to get in touch with new products, new spices and new eating costumes, Roman cuisine transformed with such an abundance of ingredients and recipes that would make any dietician shiver.

Sauces and cooking

Amongst the Romans, real dieticians did not exist, but it was soon realised that eating excess was responsible of a large number of health problems. So, along with the early treaties of gastronomy, came some rough dietetic treaties, whose principles were to be applied up to the Middle Age. There surely was a reason for this; just think that in the Imperial age banquets where composed by hundred and more courses. Two were the main features of Roman preparations: the introduction of sauces, fulfilling the task of hiding the flavour of badly preserved food, which afterward would become distinctive elements. Second, the cooking of fish, which was boiled before being fried or roasted. Slowly bread subsided cereal-based polentas. From bread to (primitive) pastry-making the pace was short: honey, raisins, walnuts and hazelnuts only needed to be added.

Greed sins

Which kind of food was mostly researched amongst the ancients? Just like in our days, scarcity determined success. Thus, even amongst the Romans and the Greeks, mushrooms and truffles were deliciousness reserved to the rich. Certain vegetables, like asparagus and figs, were regulated by special laws. The Romans learned techniques of meat preservation and raw pork production. Being these prepared with the use of salt and spices, that is precious goods, they came out real delicious. Oysters and lobsters were the most appreciated fish. Still about sauces, a delicacy mentioned in every treaty of cuisine was garum or liquamen. A garnishment obtained from fish entrails kneaded with salt and smelly herbs. We let the reader's fantasy the task to try and imagine its qualities of taste and smell...

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In the Middle Age

"Poor" Middle Age

With the decline of the Roman Empire, barbarian invasions and sacks, gastronomy gets to a stop. Contacts with barbarian populations, nomads and warriors, rather than bring novelties along impoverished roman gastronomic tradition. Only with Charles the Great, monachism growth, and after the year 1000, with the rebirth of the towns, a certain taste for good cuisine reappeared. The Middle Age is an era of meals based on the few cereals saved from the barbarian sacks, on the few vegetables planted in the small garden. Here legume and cereal soups took the place of roman’s' polentas. After the year 1000 new crops support the development of consequent changes: sugar cane and rice, both taken to Italy by the Arabs. Begins in the Middle Age the production of butter and dry cheese, forefather of our parmesan.

Arab heritage

Still in the Middle Age we began to consume any part of the pig which, easy to breed, became one of the main sources of meat and raw products, mostly ham and sausages. During their staying in Sicily, the Arabs influenced dominantly food preparations. They used to grind spices, to merge them with meat and fish. Cakes were particularly recognised and appreciated, from those derive our contemporary marzipan and nougat.

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In the Renaissance

Modern cuisine deepens its roots in Fourteen and Fifteen hundred, because of the novelties coming from the New World that change and enrich popular traditions. In this period the taste for the proper display of dishes is born. Soups prepared with milk, cereals or rice appear, while the most valued meats are poultry and game. To this century belongs the costume of wrapping meat with bread crusts. Moreover, by the end of the Fourteen hundred, here the Italian "pasta" coming. Macaroni and vermicelli (worms) garnished with raisin or butter and salt, and the first stuffed pasta, tortellino's ancestor.

Novelties

Potatoes, maize, beans, turkey, Americas cocoa, Far Eastern coffee and tea: these are the novelties going to modify cooking attitudes. It took rather long before such foodstuff could settle in Europe. Potatoes, for instance, were destined to animal nourishment up to 1700. Same applies to maize, which only began to be consumed once famines and plagues had decimated most crops. With the shape of polenta it became the king of peasants' tables. Cocoa and the beverage obtained, chocolate, gained splendour after 1600, becoming the drink of kings and princesses.

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In Sixteen hundred

This was the century marking the passage from the great Italian cuisine to the great French one. The time-door opens up on the era of the chefs and great banquet-architects. No more garnishment aimed at hiding bad flavours, only a few spices, balanced by aromatic herbs and lemon. Meat is cooked for hours, until it detaches from the bone. Humble social ranks do eat beans, maize polenta, home-made bread enriched with cheese. Small the number of garnishments, oil in the south, pork lard in the north, butter for the nobles.

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In Seventeen hundred

New sauces are discovered: mayonnaise and béchamel. Wine enters meat cooking. Ragu sauce and gelatine are born. Cabbage starts to occupy the poor's table. The century of the great travellers gathers elements of different cuisine.

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In Eighteen hundred

The French chefs divided the soups into the light (broth), more thick ( creamy soups) and velvety.

Canned revolution.

The difference in recipes mainly consists of the discovery of new methods for food preservation: a proper refrigeration industry appears in mid-1800. Margarine was born, along with the industrial large-scale production of butter. Bourgeoisie and noble cuisine merge together. In 1800 turns up yoghurt too.

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In Nineteen hundred.

By the end of the 50's, a team of French chefs invented a kind of cuisine based on new combinations of small quantities of food, artistically displayed on plates bigger than usual, garnished and decorated by the ingredients themselves.
It's the Nouvelle Cuisine, slightly diminished in our days: far too many improvised imitators caused a slow decline, and refined preparations are now the prerogative of a small exclusive bunch, selected in the few highly expensive temples of good taste.

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In the year 2000

After the necessity of a fast cooking, today recipes are again much simpler: housewives' attention increasingly turns toward food quality, along with the re-discovery of simple flavours, hinting at ethnic cuisine. Newly re-valued Mediterranean diet, still reputed optimal for taste and health, and dietetics and food combination principles are the pace-setters for the modern cuisine faced on 2000.

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