CULINARY HISTORY
Its
very difficult to ascertain the origin or history of the cooking. Cooking began
more than around 300000 years ago, when man began to use fire for preparation
of food, as per one story a group of humans after getting a hunt after many
days, accidentally thrown a large piece of meat in the fire generated for
keeping them warm and frighten animals. Due to extreme hunger pangs, one of
them braved to put his hand inside fire and recovered the piece of meat. While
eating he found the piece of meat more palatable, softer and tastier, leading
to beginning of cooking food.
Cuisine can be defined as the way of cooking,
serving and eating food, every region has a distinctive cuisine, and is a part
of the culture and lifestyle. India being the most diverse country in terms of
geography, climate & culture has one of the most diverse and unique
cuisine. Over 5,000 years of recorded History and even before, one gathers from
its legends and great epics, India had been invaded by armies, traders and
immigrants from all over the world. Some of the conquerors were the Aryans
during the second millennium BC, the Greeks, led by Alexander the great in 326
BC, the Moghuls (Akbar and Shahjahan were the emperors who enjoyed food) in the
16th Century, the British in the 18th and 19th
centuries but these were inter spreads with more observe and more exotic
incursions of Moghuls, Sythian, Pasthians, Kushans, Arabs, Turks, Afghans,
Portuguese and Dutch and throughout this successions of invaders there remained
pockets of tribal and aboriginal life in the more daunting mountain, country
and in the less accessible inland areas.
Indian
cuisine is being influenced greatly due to mergers of various cultures through
immigrations and invasions. Indian with its wide variety of ingredients, spices
and herbs also contributed to the cuisines of the other part of the world. Recipes
are handed down from generation to generation, but never put on record – only
memorized. As a consequence, every recipe is open to interpretation and there
is no standard recipe at all. Every great artiste of the kitchen – and there
are quite a few – believes that the method he adopts to make a delicacy is the
correct one. Innovation is often mistaken for originality. More over, Indian
cuisine varies from region to region. The taste, colour, texture, appearance,
and aroma of the same delicacy change every few kilometers. The resultant
mayhem has only led to confusion.
In
Indian cuisine the role of herbs and spices were very prominent, it was the
love of spices which lead to explorers from Europe to come to India and leading
to colonizing of India by England.
If we
talk about the cuisine of World we found that the development of world cuisine
happened due to two factors, one explorers and merchants and secondly the
invaders. For example Alexander the great brought to Greece spices from the
Orient and melons and other fruits from Persia. The trade routes begun by
Alexander were later used by the Ptolemys of Egypt and by the Roman Empire.
Spices and herbs hold a special place in the history of mankind, having been as
eagerly sought as gold, silver and jewels. It was the Alexander who brought
sugar from India to the rest of the world. In this regard the contribution of
Roman Empire is also of great significance, Romans controlled the vast areas of
African Continent and used to get various spices and herbs along with other
grains, Romans to protect their routes made an exclusive infrastructure of road
and sea network in Mediterranean sea, which is still being used.
Historically, the procuring of
various foods has always been of great significance for the Roman Empire be it
gram, or the English Empire tea and sugar. Culinary development initially was
tied to developments within an individual country or region; however as each
region came in contact with people from other areas, ideas were exchanged. The
result was a traceable progression in the development of food preparation from
the Egyptians, to the Assyrians, to the Babylonians, to the Greeks, to the
Romans, and then directs forerunners of the French kitchen. The French kitchen
is the cornerstone for most historians of the beginning of modern dining in the
western world.
A
pattern of refinement and development of culinary preparation began with the early
Egyptians rulers and continued to the time of Persians. The Greeks refined the
tradition of cooking; in fact Greek contribution towards the kitchen was frying
pan and few other things. The citizens of early Rome were admirers of all
things Greek. But the development of cuisine in the region of Rome is an
example of how cuisines have developed in regions all over the world. In the
Roman Empire there were two levels of culinary development taking place
simultaneously. The one most often discussed is that of the ruling elite and
their effect on foods. The Romans are to be credited with introducing to the
rest of Europe a sense of culinary art.
In the
world history a great turning point came at 1793, when France become republic
dethroning the Monarchy. This lead to many Chefs being unemployed, who begin
the Restaurants as there skills were limited to cooking only, The great chef of
that time was Marie- Antoine Careme ( 1784-1833) he is considered as the
founder of classical cuisine, his contribution to the history of cuisine are as
follows
1)
better organizing in the kitchens
2)
begin recording of recipes, cooking techniques
etc
3)
Created concepts like Wedding cakes, Tallow
Carving, Ice Carving etc.
4)
Authored various culinary books.
5)
Analyzed the recipes of various sauces and
developed the concept of basic sauces or mother sauces.
Next
to Careme came Georges Auguste Escoffier (1847-1935) considered as greatest chef of this century
and is revered by chefs and gourmets as the father of twentieth-century
cookery. His contribution in the culinary history is simplification of
classical cuisine and menus. Reduced the
number of dishes being served in each course, also authored various books and
invented various recipes which are still very important.
His two main contributions were the
simplification of classical cuisine and the classical menu and the
reorganization of the kitchen. Escoffier’s reorganization of the kitchen,
resulted in a streamlined workplace that was better suited for turning out the
simplified dishes and menus that he instituted. The system he established is
still in use today, especially in some large hotels and full-service
restaurants known as the party system or brigade system.
Nouvelle
Cuisine, for a short duration there emerged concept of nouvelle cuisine who
challenged the traditional principles of cooking, like simplifying recipes,
reducing the use of flour as thickening agents, simplifying sauces etc.
·
Modern
Trends in World of Cuisine
·
Development
of newer equipments
·
Emergence
of better transport facilities
·
Improvement
of preservation methods
·
Emergence
of better refrigeration facilities
·
Knowledge
of microbiology, food poisoning etc
·
Development
of Technology
·
Popularity
of Fast food culture
·
Globalization
of Businesses
·
Convenience
foods
·
Changes
in culture and taste of consumers
·
Need
of special diets
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