Mesturet Anecdotes: A short history of Cooking

Article publié par Pascal Brot, chef de cuisine le 06/07/2011 à 13:45
Catégories : Mesturet Anecdotes
Tags : a short history of cooking
A short history of Cooking, Volume 1
Chapter 2
 
From the first century to our time, what would later come to be French Cuisine gained considerable advances with the cuisine and know-how of the Romans. Rich Romans usually dined in a reclining position. They ate dishes that were unknown in Gaule and cooked recipes by one of the first famous chefs : Apicius. The dishes included such things as snails, oysters,  dormouse, swan, violet jam, etc… It was at that time that Italian vines first being planted everywhere in Gaule (in Bordeaux, the Rhone Valley , Burgundy and Moselle). These wines became some of the finest in the Gallo-Roman Empire as the Gauls invented wooden barrels in the same period.
Then came the time of the Barbarian invasions with its share of insecurity, famine and poverty. The well-to-do continued to cook within their country houses while the poor ate what they could, trying through experimentation and culinary imagination to bring a little enjoyment to the table.
In this difficult time, no (or hardly any) meat was available and people resorted to berries, roots, plants, plants and trees. Cooking centered around vegetables. As a matter of course, they were accompanied by fish and game. This manner of cooking developed gradually up to the 8th century; but as it was, this period had allowed for the combining and improving of original flavours so as to satisfy the palate.
When stability returned, a major player was needed to revive the cuisine – it was the church, and this will be the subject of our next (and what I hope will be) exciting episode.
See you soon for the following installment of the adventure of cooking.

 

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