HISTORY OF CULINARY ART

What is Cooking
Cooking is an act of preparing food for consumption by the application of heat. It includes a vast range
of methods tools and a combination of ingredients to change the flavor and digestibility of food helps in
mastication.

Ancient Gastronomy
Even before the appearance of the modern Man, his ancestors, following the example of many animals,
proceeded certainly to operations of rudimentary preparation of food: like it included cleaning the food
found with running water, taking away of a consumable part of a corpse or a fruit and opening of the
shell of fruits and vegetables. The crushing was done with a tool in hand, (and not only with the teeth).
The estimated development or the invention of cooking took place around 250,000 years ago. Then
slowly and steadily the ancient African civilization started cooking starchy roots and tubers around
170,000 years ago. First evidence of human fish consumption was seen around 40,000 years ago, and it
is shown that he regularly consumed freshwater fish. The earliest archaeological evidence for flour was
30,000 years ago in the civilization of Upper Palaeolithic in Europe, and it was eventually processed into
unleavened bread. Post this, during 11,500 - 6200 BCE: genetic evidence shows that all forms of Asian
rice, both Indica and japonica, occurred.

ANCIENT CUISINES – CONTINENT WISE

AFRICA
Ancient Egyptian Cuisine
The cuisine of ancient Egypt covers a span of over three thousand years. The staples of both poor and
wealthy Egyptians were bread and beer, often accompanied by green onions, other vegetables, and to a
very lesser extent meat, game and fish.

AMERICA
Aztec cuisine
Aztec cuisine is the cuisine of the former Aztec Empire and the Nahua peoples of the Valley of Mexico
(ancient). The most important staple was corn (maize), a crop that was so important to Aztec society
that it played a central part in their mythology. Just like wheat in much of Europe or rice in most of East
Asia.
Maya cuisine
Ancient Maya cuisine was varied and extensive. Many different types of resources were consumed,
including maritime, flora, and faunal material, the food that was obtained or produced through
strategies such as hunting, foraging, and large-scale agricultural production. Plant domestication
concentrated upon several core foods, the most important of which was maize.

Iranian cuisine
The term Persian cuisine is used due to the fact that Iran is historically known as Persia in the West, even
though ethnic Persians are only one of Iran's native ethnic groups that have contributed to the culinary
culture.

Hittite cuisine
This cuisine developed in the ancient Turkey.The main ingredients of Hittite cuisine were dairy products,
meat, grain products and other natural products such as honey. Hittites loved bread and had recipes for
as many as 180 types of bread in different shapes and with varying ingredients.

ANICIENT CUISINES – ASIA

Chinese Cuisine
In October 2005, the oldest noodles yet discovered were located at the Lajia site near the upper reaches
of the Yellow River in Qinghai. The site has been associated with the Qijia culture. Over 4,000 years old,
the noodles were made from foxtail and broom corn millet. The dynasties that ruled China encouraged
the culinary art in keeping with the traditions and local availabilities of meat, vegetables and marine life.

Indian Cuisine
Around 9000 BCE, a first period of indirect contacts between Fertile Crescent and Indus Valley seems to
have occurred as a consequence of the Neolithic Revolution and the diffusion of agriculture. Around
7000 BCE, agriculture spread from the Fertile Crescent to the Indus Valley, and wheat and barley began
to be grown. Sesame, and humped cattle were domesticated in the local farming communities.
Mehrgarh is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming and herding in South Asia. Nearly by
3000BCE, people in India started harvesting turmeric, cardamom, black pepper and mustard and slowly
the Aryan, Buddhist and Jain traditions added a lot of characteristics to this cuisine.

ANCIENT CUISINE – EUROPE

Greek Cuisine
Ancient Greek cuisine was characterized by its frugality for most, reflecting agricultural hardship, but a
great diversity of ingredients was known. The cuisine was founded on the "Mediterranean triad" of
cereals, olives, and grapes, which had many uses and great commercial value.
Roman Cuisine
Ancient Roman cuisine changed greatly over the duration of the civilization’s long existence. Dietary
habits were affected by the political changes from kingdom to republic to empire, and the empire's
enormous expansion, which exposed Romans to many new provincial culinary habits and cooking
methods.

ANCIENT CUISINE
 Medieval cuisine includes foods, eating habits, and cooking methods of various European
cultures during the Middle Ages, which lasted from the fifth to the fifteenth century.
 During this period, diets and cooking changed less than they did in the early modern period that
followed, when those changes helped lay the foundations for modern European cuisine.
 Cereals remained the most important staple during the early middle Ages as rice was introduced
late, and the potato was only introduced in 1536, with a much later date for widespread
consumption.
 Barley, oats and rye were eaten by the poor.
 Wheat was for the governing classes. These were consumed as bread, porridge, gruel and pasta
by all of society's members.

MODERN OR CONTINENTAL CUISINE

 The modern cuisine that developed over the last one century due to globalisation has its basis in
the European cuisines that developed in the past few centuries.
 The colonization of almost all continents by France, British, Portugal and other European nations
paved the way for the development and proliferation of the modern continental cuisine.
 There was enormous amount of cross continental trade and travel through ancient and modern
routes that helped in transfer of Ingredients and cooking techniques across continents and
nationalities.
 This transfer of ingredients transformed a lot of cuisines across the globe by adding richness and
variety to the cuisines.

AUGUSTUS ESCOFFIER
- The Credit for Standardization of the modern French cuisine goes to Chef Augustus Escoffier.
- He was a French chef and culinary writer who popularized and updated traditional French
cooking methods, and is one of the most important leaders in the development of modern
French cuisine.
- He maintained order by organizing the system of the kitchen brigade. In this system each person
in the team is responsible for a certain set of jobs, which makes the system more efficient and
quick.
- He also organized the recipes of the cuisine in to the most celebrated recipe books of all time
called “MA CUISINE”.
Escoffier and others classified traditional cuisine into the following classes according to the
Characterstics

Cuisine Simple – minimum number of ingredients/ highest standard.

Cuisine Bourgeois – better material/ complicated dishes.

Cuisine Haute – best material / dishes of best quality.

Another major change was brought about in the middle and later half of the 20th century when with the
changing times chefs brought about changes into the classic French cuisine to suit the modern day diner
who wanted to eat healthier and smaller meals. Chef Paul Bocouse along with a generation of chefs a
new cuisine (Nouvelle Cuisine) was introduced.

Nouvelle Cuisine
 It was introduced as low calorie food.
 It used minced or pureed vegetables instead of thick buttery sauces.
 It gave prime emphasis on the use of basic, seasonal and fresh ingredients which were locally
available.
 The portion size that has to present is small with a larger plate emphasizing on modern
presentation.

New trends in Cooking

 Fusion Cooking: - Mixing ingredients of one cuisine with cooking methods of other cuisine or
vice versa.
 Sous vide: - Cooking in vacuum packed bags at controlled low temperatures and extended time.
 Molecular Gastronomy: - The application of scientific principles to the understanding and
development of food preparation.