The Romans created the foundations of European cuisine by inventing fast cooking methods and establishing traditions of refined cooking. Food was an important part of rituals and funeral services, where items like honey and wine were offered. Common meals consisted of polenta, eggs, olives, cheese, and vegetables, while meat like pork and chicken was scarce. By the 3rd century AD, beef was prohibited for consumption. Famous Roman chefs wrote early cookbooks documenting recipes that featured a variety of spices, meats like pork, fish, mollusks, eggs, fruits, and honey-sweetened desserts.

1. The origins of the Roman kitchen
The Romans created the first great European culture of food. They invented the fast cooking,
the ancestors of fast food, but they also made flourish the tradition of great cookers,
establishing the basis of the refined Italian kitchen.
Food in Roman times was more than something to eat. They used to give food to gods during
the rituals and to the dead during the funeral services in their memory. For instance, they used
to pour honey and wine in certain tubes made of clay, which reached the tombs.
What did they eat? Mainly they used to eat a sort of polenta, called “puls”, with eggs, olives
and sour fresh cheese. There were also vegetables to eat. Meat was scarce: only pork or
chicken. By the end of the 3rd century A.D., they weren’t allowed to eat beef, as the oxen and
cows were used only for work and sacrifices.
Although the Roman kitchen dates back to remote times, it started to develop only after the
second Punic war. Then, many cookers started to write recipe books. The most important
cookery book of the Roman age is “De re coquinario”, written by the most famous chef of the
Antiquity: Marco Gavio Apicio, who lived under Tiberius. The Roman age knew some great
cookers, such as Catone and Virgilio, Cicerone, Vitelio, who left us some extraordinary real
explosions of flavors and scents.
The Romans knew some of the spices we know today. Their kitchen was full of flavours.
The most used and well-known meat was pork. They used to eat fish, but it was twice more
expensive than meat. They also eat mollusks and crustaceans, usually as an appetizer. They ate
birds, all kind of birds, even parrots. They appreciated their eggs, which they used to prepare in
different ways. “Ficatum”, the foie gras was not unknown to them.
They also knew the fruits: apples, grapes, figs, nuts, cherries, pears, melons, but they didn’t
know bananas, pineapples or kiwis.
They had different recipes for desserts which they used to sweeten with honey or cane sugar.
The Romanian team from Drobeta