the historian Almudena Villegas placeholder image, Member of the Royal Spanish Academy of Gastronomy, is the author of the book that concerns us today, Great Masters of the History of Gastronomy,
In it, the adventures of illustrious figures of our history in the field of cuisine and good food are collected, basing their data on the rigorous historical analysis of the characters who made gastronomy a part of their lives.
In the past they were privileged, today it is more common for a large number of individuals to love and enjoy food as if it were a heavenly devotion, but these antiguos foodies it has left us legacies from ancient times to the present day.
We can find among its delicious lines the adventures of Roman citizens, such as Marco Gavio Apicius, that lived before the counter of the years was reset again, and precursor of the greatest culinary eccentricities of the time, among which the foie from more than 2000 years ago made from the liver of goose fed figs.
Other celebrities fill the pages of this very elaborate manuscript, such as good signature cuisine, where we can read anecdotes and customs of great men such as Buddha, Moses, Hippocrates, Moctezuma, Alexander Dumas or Thomas Jefferson, all of them told with rigor and an excellent sense of humor.
Gastronomic anecdotes that secured a place in history.
There are many and varied ways of reflecting in history books, the roles of politicians, the military, etc., but that of gastronomes had to wait until the XNUMXth century for the famous French chefs to open their rooms and kitchens to the world, witness perfectly taken by our chefs today, as recounted in his work by the Mr. Rafael Ansón, The Gastronomic Culture of the Mediterranean
Prominent members of the European bourgeoisie, such as the one considered “Father of Modern Hospitality “, The Swiss Cesar Ritz, were the first to make an Art out of waste. This one in the company of Georges Auguste EscoffierThey were the strongholds of the competing military in the Franco-Prussian wars, preparing recipes in a framework of scarcity, engineering the mixture of ingredients that could offer the necessary caloric power as well as good taste,
This is the case of Rice pudding type Lorraine, with sweetener made from plum jam and crushed biscuits topping, or the ability to survive by extending the life of food by using marinade techniques to provide meat for exhausted soldiers returning from the front.
Women and their culinary legacy
Thus we will arrive chapter by chapter to the present day with the incorporation of the “cooks” or “gastronomes” who rarely let them stand out in ancient times but today they are very present in the national culinary scene:
María Mestayer de Echagüe, known Marquesa de Parabere is a special case with famous publications like Confectionery and pastry 1930 o The full kitchen of 1933.
Simone ortega, author of the manual par excellence 1080 cooking recipes or the trials of Spanish cheeses and the cuisine of Madrid both from 1987
Julia Carolyn McWilliamsKnown as Julia Child and especially his television Julie and Julia, where the chameleon Meryl Streep becomes a daring cook and portrays the work of this Californian gastronomer, who left us the exciting legacy of Mastering the art of French cuisine.
A life full of gastronomy that is well worth knowing.