Until Rome turned into the Roman Empire, the culinary traditions of the Tiber coast were very unpretentious. For example, Rick (pool) – a dish prepared from various cereals and resembling a polo, was supplied both in a liquid form and in the form of cakes fried in oil. Also ate vegetable soups, in which they added onions and garlic. But eggs, cheese, pork and chicken entered the diet only wealthy families. The Roman Empire did not change the class inequality: a third of the citizens were so poor that they almost died of hunger, but amazing changes occurred on the tables of the rich and nouveau richest. Roman legionnaires continued to conquer new lands and brought from there national dishes that cooked cooks. In Sicily, in those days of the Greek colony, the Romans opened the charms of Mediterranean cuisine and began to imitate the new Greek culture of banquets. At them, food was primarily a fusion of souls during conversations and artistic representations. Thus, Greek culinary culinary culinary culinary culinary culings brought Rome to be glory. Such meetings often passed to the orgy, because the Romans, unlike the Greeks, did not dilute the wine with water so that it became easier. Greece, Carthage and Egypt supplied new goodies, which, of course, was not given due to local foods. Day after day, the Romans absorbed giant food supplies. Soon it became a good tone to give guests to dishes from expensive ingredients delivered from afar to demonstrate the wealth of the owner of the house. Turtles were brought from Arabia, a ham was brought from Gaul, and salmon was caught in the waters of the Rhine. New methods of supplying products to the capital are constantly invented to the capital.
Just imagine how magnificent the “international” cuisine was magnificent, which existed in Rome and incorporated the culinary art of even the most remote provinces. Particular attention was paid to the quality and freshness of products. Roman agronomists have achieved special success in growing fruits and vegetables in Lazio, and in the markets of Rome it was easy to find even fresh oysters. Before the start of dinner, they almost always offered egg dishes. Then there was a game or a poultry that served with vegetables, and dinner was instilled with a sweet dessert or fruit. In terms of food, the Day of an ordinary Roman was practically like the Day of a resident of the Mediterranean. For breakfast, he ate white bread soaked in wine, and cheese, bulbs, eggs and sometimes cold meat went for lunch. Those who wanted could go to one of the many Kharcheven, where hot dishes were offered. For security reasons in removable dwellings, it was forbidden to make fire, and therefore their inhabitants were mainly prepared by cold dishes. The most important meal was for the evening, when the Romans either went to friends, or invited guests and arranged a called dinner at home.
The only weak point of Roman cuisine was the pursuit of prestige. Often it was the price that determined the menu, so you should not ask the question of how expensive vegetables, brought from Spain, could be combined with an Indian ginger. Were in the fashion of preparing complex dishes, as it was necessary at all costs to impress the invited. The highest strata of society succumbed to the temptation to turn the table into a stage, and the meal into the theater performance. The most skilled cooks could prepare a calf in such a way that he had a taste different from meat, or give a cod that is not at all like fish. Fashion for luxurious dishes and exquisite culinary art, according to the Roman law, “no one should guess what the dish is made of”, lasted at the royal courtyards of Europe for several centuries. And only in the Renaissance era, brave cooking reformers have proved that less expensive dishes prepared in the usual way can also be delicious. Roman cuisine also has its own heroes. In the 1st century. n. e. Mark Gavi Apitius, a raft, a contemporary of the emperors Augustus and Tiberius appeared on the culinary stage of Rome. He constantly felt like the object of contempt and threats from philosophers: Clement of Alexandria, Pliny, Seneca did not get tired of criticizing the youth for no longer interested in studying rhetoric and philosophy, preferring to stir in the kitchens of Apitia. However, he was deaf to these attacks. Apitius opened the methods of preparing delicious pork liver (“feed animals with figs and sweet cake”), invented a variety of recipes for making snails (“feed them with milk”), and, in the end, collected all his culinary knowledge in the book. Unfortunately, the original of this classics of Latin cooking has not survived to this day; For many centuries, the work of the Apitius has been repeatedly copied, edited and supplemented, and publishers (mainly monks) were not always distinguished by a good knowledge of the subject. Nevertheless, the work of Apitius conveys to us an understanding of what was on the tables and in the buffets, when the Romans were refracted.
The table of ancient Rome