Essay On Ancient Roman Kitchen

The kitchen was the center of all Ancient Roman cuisine. In fact, the Roman kitchen was much more advanced than many other kitchens during this time period. By looking at the design, placement, and layout along with the different cooking utensils at this time, we can truly see how the Ancient Roman kitchen pioneered the modern day kitchen’s we see today. According to The History of the Kitchen, “the Ancient Roman kitchen was well equipped with utensils and ingredients and the true forerunner of the kitchen as we know it.” (Source _)

In Ancient Rome, the location of your kitchen was based on your social standing, rich or poor. At first kitchen’s were located in atriums so that smoke could easily escape but these atriums later became used as living spaces. For the rich, each …show more content…
The upper class individuals would pay a good amount of money to have their own personal slave cook called a “coquus.” The slave cook would make meals using the built in clay ovens and “stove-tops” which were heated from a charcoal fire located inside. They would have their “coquus” serve difficult meals to show off to their guests. For example, complicated meals such as animals stuffed into each other would be served to show their wealth. The romans would keep their animals as their meat giving them easy access to beef, pork, chicken, mutton, and fish. Bread was considered to be a part of their daily diet and only the richest could afford the most expensive white bread. The upper class also liked to use spices which were brought by traders from thousands of miles away. Cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg, and cloves were some of the spices that they like to use that were brought all the way from India. Honey was used as a sweetener because sugar was not available to them. Some roman recipes that include a lot of spices are the Columella Salad, Soft-Boiled eggs in Pine-Nut Sauce, and Roast Wild