Modernist-Cuisine-Vol.-1-Small

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Abu I-Hasan “Ali Ibn Nafi,” known
as Ziryab, was a prominent court
member in the Umayyad Dynasty
of Córdoba between 822 and 857.
He is credited with the introduction
of asparagus and the creation of the
three-course meal (soup, main
course, and dessert). He also
introduced crystal goblets to table
service, and it is even said that he
invented the tablecloth.
The Forme of Cury is the oldest
cookbook written in English. It was
compiled about 1390 by the
master cooks of King Richard II.
Researchers studying it made a
surprising announcement in
2003the book contains a recipe
for lasagna. The dish, called loseyns
in Old English (pronounced
“lasan”), consists of noodles rolled
as flat and wide “as paper,” cooked
in broth, layered with cheese, and
baked. This recipe predates any
Italian reference to the dish, which
leads to the surprising conclusion
that lasagna may be British.
T HE HISTORY O F
Apicius
and ruled for centuries, but like England, they did
not have elaborate cuisines (and, like the English,
they imported their share of French chefs).
Sweeping views of history, like the patterns
in cuisine discussed here, are always simplifications
of a more complicated situation, so there
are exceptions. Spain fits the theory only up to a
point. It has a Mediterranean climate and had a
long-standing monarchy and aristocracy that
accumulated enormous wealth by exploiting the
New World. Yet traditional Spanish cuisine owes
more to farm and peasant life than to that of the
great Spanish court. That is less true in Andalusia,
where cuisine from the Islamic courts made a
lasting contribution.
There are many wonderful traditional German
foods, but most come from the peasant table, such
as the numerous varieties of hearty sausages and
hams. One reason may be that Germany never had
a long-standing aristocracy of sufficient scale.
Germany was not unified as a country until the
late 19th century. Before that time, the region was
carved into pieces ruled by various European
empires or complex confederations of countries
such as Prussia, Bohemia, Swabia, and Bavaria.
Germany also suffered from its northern location,
which limited the diversity of indigenous fruits,
vegetables, and herbs.
Marcus Gavius Apicius was a famous Roman epicure who
lived in the early 1st century a.d. Early histories tell us that
Apicius went to great lengths to find good ingredients—for
instance, he once sailed all the way to Libya to eat some
supposedly great prawns, only to return home without
finding any to his satisfaction. One of the first cookbooks in
recorded history is attributed to him, but historians have
since concluded that the 400-plus recipes in the book—
titled De re coquinaria, or The Art of Cooking—were not
compiled until the 4th or 5th century and derive from many
sources. Today the book is often referred to as Apicius.
Like many contemporary cookbooks, it is divided into
sections based on main ingredients, although unlike contemporary
cookbooks, it did not specify measurements and
often omitted preparation techniques, simply saying “cook
Italy provides an even better example of how
political fragmentation can affect cuisine. Blessed
by a favorable climate, the region produces a full
range of fruits and vegetables, which is ideal for
culinary diversity.
Italy would not be unified as a country until
1870. In the interim, the region was a patchwork
of duchies, principalities, city-states, republics,
and territories controlled by foreign monarchs.
There was no permanent or centralized Italian
monarchy, and thus no royal court for which chefs
could create new dishes.
Italy did have one permanent fixture, the
Papacy, and some distinctive foods were developed
for its religious feasts and celebrations. But
this was not the same sort of imperial haute
cuisine found in France or China.
Italy was the birthplace of the Renaissance and
played a central role in the creation of modern
Western civilization. Yet Italy has always sought
legitimacy for its food in its peasant origins. Some
experts argue that Italy’s great citiessuch as
Rome, Milan, and Florencehave been the
centers of its culinary innovation, but the culinary
tradition within Italy tends to be rooted in the
countryside. Although professional chefs and city
dwellers have made many contributions to the
cuisine, the heart of modern Italian cooking is still
until done.” The book included sections on meats, vegetables,
legumes, fowl, and seafood. The meat chapter offered
recipes for domestic livestock as well as venison, boar, and
even dormouse (a small member of the squirrel family),
while the fowl section included recipes for crane, ostrich,
flamingo, and peacock. Most of the recipes in the book—
even sweet dishes that we would consider desserts—included
a sauce made with garum, a fermented fish sauce (see
page 5·121).
This sauce and the plethora of spices are typical of the
sophisticated and elaborate Imperial Roman cuisine, which
is almost nothing like what we think of as Italian food.
Instead, it is closer in spirit to Thai or Indian cuisine today,
although it has a flavor profile that is quite distinct from
theirs or those of other extant cuisines.
T HE HISTORY O F
Laser
Laser, a seasoning used in ancient Greece
and Rome, was one of the first “it” ingredients.
Extracted from silphion, one of the
wild giant fennels known as silphium,
laser was a resinous juice used extensively
in ancient Mediterranean cuisines,
primarily in sauces. References to the
ingredient were peppered throughout the
first Roman cookbook, Apicius (see previous
page). People also ate silphium stalks, roots, and
leaves, whose flavor may have been similar to that of
parsley or celery. Farmers were supposedly unsuccessful in
their attempts to grow silphium, so it became a rare and
expensive commodity—literally worth its weight in silver.
Why was the seasoning so sought after? In addition to
being a versatile culinary ingredient, laser was used for
medicinal purposes (primarily as a digestive aid) and possibly
as a contraceptive. Some scholars believe that its birth-
considered to be in the nation’s fertile land and the
people who farm it.
At an earlier point in history, the Italians did
have a central political authoritywhen ancient
Romans ruled their empire. The Roman Empire
had a fully developed imperial cuisine that drew on
foods from all over the known world. Roman food
preparations have been passed down in the ancient
cookbook Apicius (see previous page). The cook
who compiled this book wrote for other professional
chefs, and he described a rich and varied cuisine.
Many of the recipes call for im ported spices and
show considerable so ph is tication.
But from a culinary perspective, Roman is not
the same as Italian. Virtually none of the dishes
mentioned in Apicius are recognizable as the
Italian cooking we know today.
One of the key Roman condiments and seasonings
was garum, a fermented fish sauce similar to
Asian fish sauce and thought to be a very early
predecessor of Worcestershire sauce (see page
5·121). The Romans added their fish sauce to
everything, including desserts, but it doesn’t
appear in today’s Italian recipes at all.
The Romans also used lovage extensively, along
with cumin and coriander. These flavors are rarely
control properties were the real reason for its
popularity. In any event, silphium became
extinct around the 1st century a.d., probably
due to overharvesting or overgrazing.
Its closest living relative is asafetida, a far more
pungent (even foul-smelling) plant that is used as a
condiment in parts of South America and India. The
Romans also used it, but they complained that it was vastly
inferior to laser. “The Cyrenaic kind [laser], even if one just
tastes it, at once arouses a humour throughout the body and
has a very healthy aroma, so that it is not noticed on the
breath, or only a little; but the Median [asafetida] is weaker in
power and has a nastier smell,” wrote Pedanius Dioscorides,
a Greek pharmacist and botanist practicing in Rome in the 1st
century a.d.
(if ever) encountered in contemporary Italian
cuisine. Meanwhile, basil, which is a staple
seasoning in Italian cooking today, is mentioned
only once in Apicius.
Among the most sought-after Roman seasonings
was laserpicium, or laser (see above), the
extract of a plant that the Romans loved so much,
they ate it to extinction. Losing laser was a blow
Silphium appears on a coin from Cyrene, a Greek colony in what is
now Libya. Silphium, the source of laser, was its major crop.
The asaroton is a style of Roman mosaic
depicting the unswept floor after a
banquet. As one might guess, it was
popular in dining rooms. These mosaics
tell us a lot about ancient Roman eating
habits—and how messy the banquets
were. It also tells us that the Romans had a
sense of humor. Why else would they have
used using expensive mosaics to mimic a
morning-after mess?
10 VOLUME 1 · HISTORY AND FUNDAMENTALS
HISTORY 11