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Culinary
History
3
Objective
• Explain why it is important to study culinary
history.
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Culinary History
• Understanding the past helps chefs
understand how the eclectic American
cuisine was shaped
• By studying culinary history, chefs learn
about
– the social customs, ingenuity, values, and
religious beliefs of the time
– past culinary practices
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Objectives
• Understand influences on culinary practices
from ancient times through the 1900s.
• Summarize the progression of the various
styles of cuisine.
• Explain the origins of American cuisine.
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Ancient Cooking
• In early times, cooks, hunters, and gatherers
assured human survival
• As agriculture developed,
– the struggle to find food was eased
– small cities appeared
– standards of living rose
– more complex cooking practices developed
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Ancient Egypt
• This journey
through culinary
history begins in
ancient Egypt from
about 3100 BC to
300 BC
Bridgeman Art Library
continued
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Ancient Egypt
• The ancient Egyptians
– made yeast-raised and flat breads
– tended bees
– cooked assorted fishes from the Nile River
– raised animals for both their milk and meat
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Ancient Greece
• Ancient Greece
(750 BC–146 BC)
rose to power as
ancient Egypt
declined
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continued
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Ancient Greece
• The cuisine of ancient Greece focused on
food products, rather than on elaborate
cooking techniques
• Cooking techniques centered around spit
roasting, boiling, baking, and grilling
• Greek cuisine mainstays included olives,
honey, cheese, seafood products, grain
products, lamb, and wild herbs
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Ancient Rome
• Ancient Rome (625 BC–476 AD) followed
ancient Greece as the dominant power
continued
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Ancient Rome
• The social elite enjoyed a refined cuisine,
while the largest part of the population
existed on simple ingredients prepared
simply
• The wealth of ancient Rome allowed chefs to
develop their art with a wide variety of
imported and rare products at their disposal
continued
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Ancient Rome
• Apicius wrote the first complete Western
cookbook, De re coquinaria, during this time
• Apicius’ book describes challenging culinary
dishes with complex flavor profiles
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Cooking of the Middle Ages
• With the fall of Rome to invading armies in
476 AD, Europe entered the Middle Ages
• The Middle Ages lasted for at least 1,000
years
• During these years, Europe was carved into
smaller kingdoms that wrestled one another
for power
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The Religious Influence
• During this time, the Catholic Church filled
the power vacuum and influenced European
life and dining habits
• Catholic monasteries preserved records of
ancient cooking practices
• They also preserved and improved the art of
baking as well as cheese, wine, and beer
making
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The Influence of Arab Culture
• In the Middle Ages, the Arabs invaded and
ruled southern Europe and northern Africa
• With Arab culture came new ingredients,
recipes, techniques, and culinary traditions
including
– almonds
– citrus fruits
– eggplant
– distilltion
– addition of
sugar and
ground nuts to
savory dishes
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Meals for the Masses
• Societies consisted of a small aristocracy
and a large majority of common people
• Common people subsisted on local
agricultural products, which each family grew
• Foods were often cooked using simple
techniques
• Survival was difficult in winter months
because less food was available
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Meals for Royalty
• Royalty often ate well and employed many
cooks to create lavish banquets
• Use of costly spices and complex edible
visual creations were the norm
• People ate using a knife, occasionally a
spoon, or with trenchers
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Cooking of the Renaissance
• Starting in the 1400s and ending in the
1600s, Europe was slowly transformed by
the Renaissance
• Sauces became lighter and more refined,
while dishes were streamlined and simpler to
prepare
• Cooking for the masses did not change
much
continued
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Cooking of the Renaissance
• During the Renaissance, the exchange of
culinary traditions between France, Spain,
and Italy increased greatly
• This slow and steady refining of French
cooking eventually lead to the popularity of
French cuisine around the world
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Cooking Ingredients Crisscross
Continents
• When explorers
discovered the
New World, new
foods were
discovered
continued
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Cooking Ingredients Crisscross
Continents
• Tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, corn,
chocolate, beans, and vanilla traveled from
the New World to Europe
• Wheat, citrus fruit, sugar, cattle, and pigs
made the voyage from Europe to the New
World
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Cooking of the 1700s and 1800s
• Prior to the beginning of the French
Revolution, chefs worked in the homes of the
wealthy
• As many of these wealthy elite either lost
their lives or fled France, chefs lost their jobs
continued
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Cooking of the 1700s and 1800s
• After the French Revolution, restaurants
became the main source of jobs for chefs
Bridgeman Art Library
continued
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Cooking of the 1700s and 1800s
• During these two centuries,
renowned chef, Antonin
Carême (ahn tohn IN kahr
EHM), practiced his art
• Carême authored several
important cookbooks, in
which he refined and
systemized the grande
cuisine
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The US Melting Pot
• Early European settlers and Native
Americans learned culinary techniques from
each other and shared food products
• As the US grew, new immigrants brought
their own culinary traditions
• These traditions affected what is referred to
as a “melting pot cuisine”
continued
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The US Melting Pot
• Regional cuisines slowly developed in the US
• Regional differences resulted from the
merging of the following factors:
– Cooking traditions of local Native Americans
– Cooking traditions of the immigrants who settled
in the region
– The region’s climate
– The area’s indigenous (ihn DIH gehn us) foods
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Food Safety and Availability
• During the 1800s, other important culinary
advances took place such as
– long-term preservation of food by canning
– invention of pasteurization
– advances in food transportation and refrigeration
– invention of the first stoves
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Cooking of the 1900s
• The 1900s began
under the influence
of revered chef,
Auguste Escoffier
(ehs kawf EEAY)
Mary Evans Picture Library
continued
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Cooking of the 1900s
• Escoffier’s contributions to cooking included
– redefining the organization of the professional
kitchen
– emphasis on professionalism
– simplifying the grande cuisine of Carême
– his book Le Guide Culinaire, which systemized
classic cuisine
continued
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Cooking of the 1900s
• In the years following Escoffier,
France continued to be at the forefront
of haute (OHT) cuisine
• Ferdinand Point (1897–1955) and his
restaurant La Pyramide in southern
France popularized regional cooking
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Culinary Experimentation
• In the 1960s, some of the chefs who trained
at La Pyramide introduced nouvelle cuisine
• Many of these chefs were influenced by
Asian food traditions
• In the late 1960s and early 1970s,
Americans began watching cooking
demonstrations on TV
continued
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Culinary Experimentation
• Ethnic cuisines, such as Thai, Mexican,
Cajun, and Italian, were introduced to the
American palate in the 1980s and 1990s
• Some chefs mixed the different cuisines to
create various fusion cuisines
• Other chefs created variations of traditional
regional American cuisines
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Culinary and Technology
• Recent decades brought technological
advances that dramatically changed the
commercial kitchen such as
– air transport of food products around the world
– the microwave, food processor, convection
ovens, and induction cooking
– computers providing easy access to large
amounts of information, and powerful software to
manage food and labor costs
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Review
• What three ancient cultures laid the
foundations of Western culinary practices?
– Egypt
– Greece
– Rome
continued
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Review
• During the Middle Ages, what religious
group influenced European life and dining
habits?
– Catholic Church
continued
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Permission granted to reproduce for educational use only.
Review
• How did the Arab culture influence the
foods eaten in the Middle Ages?
– They brought new ingredients, recipes, and
techniques
continued
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Permission granted to reproduce for educational use only.
Review
• In the Middle Ages, how were the eating
habits of royalty different from those of
common people?
– Royalty had lavish banquets and feasted on
dishes containing numerous expensive spices
– Common people grew their own food and
cooked them using simple techniques
continued
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Review
• How did exploration during the
Renaissance affect culinary history?
– Early explorers traveled from Europe to find a
cheaper route to buy expensive spices, but
instead landed in the New World. This lead to
food from the New World being taken to
Europe and food from Europe being brought
to the New World.
continued
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Review
• Why did restaurants gain popularity in the
1700s and 1800s?
– The French Revolution took place and chefs
lost their jobs because their employers lost
their lives or fled. So chefs began working in
restaurants.
continued
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Review
• What chef is credited with creating grande
cuisine?
– Antonin Carême
continued
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Review
• How did the melting pot cuisine develop in
America?
– It developed as a combination of Native
American cuisine, European cuisine, and the
culinary traditions of immigrants
continued
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Review
• What were some of Auguste Escoffier’s
culinary contributions?
– Redefined the professional kitchen into its
modern organization
– Stressed that cooks and chefs should act as
professionally as possible
– Simplified the grande cuisine of Carême
– His famous book, Le Guide Culinaire,
systemized classic cuisine
continued
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Permission granted to reproduce for educational use only.
Review
• Describe fusion cuisine
– The merging of two or more ethnic cuisines
into one cooking style
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