KITCHENS AND DINING ROOMS AT POMPEII ... - Get a Free Blog

Owners of larger houses lavished far more attention on their dining areas than on their
cooking areas. They displayed their wealth, taste and learning at the meal not only by associating
the dinner with a beautifully prepared setting, but also by disassociating the dinner from most of
the cooking process. Kitchens were marginalized, separated from the sensory perception of the
guests so that they noticed only the finished product, suddenly appearing at table as if from
nowhere. 'Nowhere' is actually an accurate description of the cooking areas. At the end of a long
corridor or at the edge of the house, kitchens had no sense of place for the visitor who could not
perceive them. Only the slave and servant 'nobodies' attached to the kitchen were in a position to
appreciate the food preparation. A Plautine slave describes the kitchen as "a warm place, where
there are usually plenty of all good things (to eat)!" 22 Authors of elite station complain instead
about the smoke, smells, and fire hazards of kitchens. 23 At least in the largest houses, the inherent
social distinctions between the household staff, and the free family and their guests, are
formalized in the architectural segregation of cooking from elite eating space. The link between
social standing and meals is confirmed by the closer physical association between cooking and
eating areas in the smallest (work)shops and houses, and by the intimate association of cooking
and eating in the servants' quarters of the largest houses.
Formal banqueting with invited guests in elite houses was an extension of the same simple
principle that applied to the lowest of (work)shops and cookshops: food should be shared in
proper company. The more socially proximate a group of individuals were, the more likely were
they to eat together. Slaves, poor freedpersons and poor citizens tended to cook and eat in their
own company. Slaves then served dinner in the houses of the wealthy, who shared it with their
peers in a grand setting. Preparation and consumption of meals in Pompeii and the Roman world
in general was a proven social barometer. Everyone at every level of society could recognize the
culinary clues to the current social order: what was being eaten, how it was cooked and eaten,
when it was eaten, where it was cooked and eaten, and most importantly, who was cooking and
with whom the meal was shared.
I have characterized cooking and dining facilities in a relatively ordinary Roman town, at
the heart of the Empire, and have used that information to illuminate household social relations.
A similar study of cooking and dining in provincial contexts would offer the opportunity to
compare customs at the center with customs at the Imperial periphery. Did local culinary customs
survive, or were they mixed with, or replaced by, Roman foods, cooking techniques, and dining
practices? This may be an effective way to address the question of Romanization.
22 Pl. Per. 630-635 (see chapter two, p. 72).
23 See chapter two, pp. 74-77.
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