Friends, Romans, trenchermen

LYING on perfumed and padded couches propped up on their left forearm

the noble Romans of the first century spread a napkin over the couch to

protect it, then picked up small pieces of meat, fish or bread, dipping

the food into thick sauces before eating. The variety of foods before

them was amazing. The ham had been imported from Gaul, the pickles from

Spain, the wine from the Jura, the oysters from Britain, the spices from

Indonesia . . . Classical Greece, though it had passed on to Imperial

Rome the complexities of fine cooking, had never experienced this range

of foreign exotica.

The temptations of novelty made possible by the vastness of the Roman

Empire created a fever among rich Romans which kept them in a constant

state of excitement about new tastes. The wise men of Greece had little

influence over this turn of events. Nothing could stop the decline as

''vomitoria'' closets adjoining places of eating were constructed. One

course dispatched, there was room for the next, and the next . . .

Sometimes fortunes ran out and men were ruined both financially and

physically. Or action was taken, like suicide, before the money ran out.

One of the most noble Roman gourmets, Marcus Apicus, who had originally

learned gastronomy from the Greeks and who founded a school of cookery

and wrote the most important Roman cookery book of the day, took poison

at the age of 55 in AD30.

The end came for the Roman Empire too, with its crazy habits and

outrageous concoctions. Along with all the other arts of a civilised

society, the Greek-learned cooking skills based originally on balance

and restraint were swept away as eat-to-live barbarian tribes conquered.

Sensible town people returned to the land (where they remained until

the industrial revolution in the nineteenth century) and fended for

themselves, relying, once again, on native ingredients, thick porridge,

sustaining broths, and whatever their industry could provide.

Fine cooking survived thanks to hoarding monks, hanging on to the

manuscript recipes of the past, though they could not afford, or obtain,

most of the ingredients. When the great families of Venice, Milan,

Florence, Rome, Genoa and Naples fostered the renaissance of art and

letters in the fifteenth century it was a Vatican librarian with access

to culinary archives, Bartolomeo Sachhi, who produced the first culinary

work known as Platina's Book (1474).

Reaching to classical Rome and Greece for culinary roots, Platina (a

Latinisation of Piadena, the name of his home town) drew on ancient

Roman authors but chided them for what he regarded as culinary excesses.

He had little time for the lavish use of spices which had been revived

in the Middle Ages and suggested that it was better to season food with

lemon and orange juice, or wine. He counselled moderation.

Among the more sophisticated recipes using red wine sauces there were

humble vegetable soups, and bean stews to be eaten with bread as a

meatless meal. The spit-roasted meats of the Homeric heroes were served

on beds of rice or pasta (an invention which is thought to have been

brought via India and Egypt in the eleventh century). It was Platina who

suggested starting a meal with the fresh taste of fruit; advice still

observed in the Italian antipasto of melon or figs with paper-thin

slices of dried ham.

Interest in gastronomy intensified. Apicus was revived; not through

his own manuscript recipes which the monks had not managed to preserve,

but through notes written by one of his students. Apicus was printed in

Milan in 1498, and along with Platina, encouraged the Doges of Venice,

the Medicis of Florence, the Borgias, the Viscontis and all other

powerful families of the day to revive -- with reservations -- some of

the splendours of ancient Greece and Rome.

Crucial to this development was the discovery by the Portuguese of a

new sea route to the spice islands in 1498 which removed the spice trade

monopoly from the Venetians.

When the trading in spices declined so did their use in cooking. While

the rest of wealthy Europe continued to think it essential to spice

highly, the people of Venice, Florence, Milan and Rome (not joined

together as a unified Italy until 1861) took a different tack. They

developed a much simpler style. Partridges were spit-roasted and served

with lemon slices, pigeons with sugar and capers, rabbits with crushed

pine nuts, fried veal sweetbread and liver with a sauce of eggplant.

Fresh almonds were served on vine leaves, milk curds with sugar

sprinkled over, plain pastries were made with milk and eggs.

In 1570, Pope Pious V's chef, who was responsible for these dishes

served at a four-course banquet, used spices (other than pepper) only

twice, when a goose is seasoned with cinnamon and some ''Turkish-style

rice with milk, sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon''.

PETITI DI POLLO ALLA FIORENTINA

(Chicken breasts fried in butter)

Ingredients:

1 small roasting chicken

1 level tablespoon flour

salt and pepper

2 oz (50 g) butter

Method: With a very sharp small knife remove each side of the breast

cleanly from the bone. Remove the skin, flatten each side a little with

a rolling pin or meat bat. Season with salt and pepper and dust lightly

with flour.

Heat the butter in a pan until hot but not burned, add the fillets and

cook quickly on both sides until lightly browned.

Lower the heat and cover the pan. Cook gently, around five minutes,

until the chicken is just cooked. Serve with a green salad and saute

potatoes.

To cook the remainder of the chicken: Heat a tablespoon of oil in a

large pot and brown the chicken. Add an onion studded with a few cloves,

a bay leaf, a sprig of parsley and thyme and cover with cold water.

Bring to the boil and simmer gently until the chicken is cooked, remove

the meat.

Return the carcass to the pan and cook for 1-2 hours. Strain, season

and serve as a clear chicken broth with some of the meat added,

garnished with a finely chopped leek.

PULLUM ELIXUM EX IURE SUO

(Apicus chicken in its own broth)

Grind pepper, cumin, a little thyme, fennel seed, mint, rue and laser

root. (use ginger). Moisten with vinegar.

Add dates and pound. Blend with honey, vinegar, stock, olive oil. Take

the boiled chicken, cool it and dry it. Pour sauce over and serve.

IN PULLO ELIXO IUS CRUDUM

(Apicus uncooked sauce for boiled chicken)

Throw into a mortar, aniseed, dried mint, and laser root (fennel).

Moisten with vinegar. Add dates, pour in stock, a little mustard and

olive oil, and boiled wine. Blend and then serve.

PULLUM OXYZOMUM

(Apicus chicken seasoned with sour sauce)

Take one eighth of a pint of olive oil, a small but sufficient amount

of stock, and the same of vinegar. Add six scruple, 1 teaspoon of

pepper, one of parsley, and a bouquet of chives.

Simmer, season the chicken with the sauce and serve.

CAVOLI IN AGRODOLCE

(Modern Italian cabbage in sweet and sour sauce)

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, thinly sliced

Small cabbage, finely chopped

3 large tomatoes, skinned and sliced

1 tablespoon wine vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon sugar

Method: Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the onions and cook

until transparent. Stir in the cabbage, tomatoes, vinegar, salt and

pepper. Cover and cook gently for about five to ten minutes, stirring

occasionally. Taste. Add the sugar and adjust the sweet/sour flavour by

adding more vinegar to get the right pungency and balance. Serve as a

vegetable starter or with meat or fish.