Food In The Renaissance Essay

From the times of Neanderthals to present day, food has always been a basic necessity of life. Without it, we die. Despite the constant need of food, it’s prominence has varied throughout history. Today, we see food as an essential part of culture, but how did people in the renaissance see food? How important was food and the people who made it to others in the Renaissance in England and Italy? Based on the cookbooks, letters, and books of the time period, the importance of food is illustrated through the countless amounts of discussion about the topic and the emphasis placed on cooks of royalty or people like the pope. One of the most popular cookbooks from the Renaissance is the Opera dell’arte del cucinare, written by Bartolomeo Scappi in 1570. At the beginning of the book, is not only a section dedicated to introducing the author, but a large portrait of the author that takes up an entire page (Scappi 5). Located at the end of the book are also illustrations that show what the kitchen of the Vatican looked like in 1570 …show more content…
After the invention of the printing press, a higher literacy rate created a public eager to buy self-help and how-to books, including cookbooks (Albala 26). With cookbooks being created more and more, the variety of food grew of course, but also the sense of intelligence one felt when they could read the recipe or nutritional books (26). Because of so many books like this however, people became obsessed over it. People “[tried] to maintain rigorous control over every morsel consumed” (Albala 2) An artist named Pontormo apparently “made a point of recording every crumb he ate” (2). This obsession with eating right shows the importance and emphasis on food in the Renaissance because of the time put towards