Translated from french (please notify us of errors)
Today, the tomato, aubergine and pepper are inseparable from Mediterranean cuisine, but all these products were unknown in the Roman world two thousand years ago… You will therefore find none of them in Roman dishes!
These absences are explained by the isolation of continents until the Age of Discovery. Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas in 1492 initiated what historians call the Columbian Exchange: an unprecedented transfer of plant, animal and microbial species between the Old and New Worlds. Whilst Europeans brought wheat, vines, cattle and horses to the Americas, they brought back foods that would radically transform world cuisines and economies. Simultaneously, the maritime routes established by the Portuguese to Asia brought to Europe other commodities hitherto unknown or extremely rare. Within a few centuries, global food systems were irreversibly transformed.
Here are the main foods that the Romans never knew.
Aubergine
The aubergine is native to India where it has been cultivated for more than 4,000 years. It was cultivated in ancient Mesopotamia, but unknown to the Greeks and Romans. Its cultivation is attested in Persia from Late Antiquity onwards. It was there that the Arabs encountered it before introducing it to the Mediterranean in the 9th century.
But in Europe, it attracted suspicion from its first mention in the 13th century by Albertus Magnus in his treatise De vegetabilibus (completed around 1260). Its Italian name, melanzana, derived from the Arabic bāḏinjān, was reinterpreted through folk etymology as mala insana, that is “unhealthy fruit”. This association, popularised in the 15th century by the humanist Ermolao Barbaro, considerably reinforced mistrust of this vegetable. At the same period in France, the aubergine was also called “mad apple”. Evidence of this mistrust, its consumption today remains far lower in our regions than in the Middle East, where it has remained a pillar of gastronomy for over a millennium.
Bean
The bean and all its derivatives are also vegetables native to Central and South America, where they have been cultivated for approximately 7,000 years. They only arrived in Europe from the 16th century onwards, initially in Italy and southern France. The Romans knew other legumes such as broad beans, chickpeas and lentils, which explains the frequent confusion and the belief that the bean is European.
The bean adapted remarkably well to the European climate, which explains why it is often believed to be native to Europe. This rapid adaptation enabled its spread throughout Europe from the 17th century onwards. The bean became a staple food in numerous regions, progressively replacing broad beans in popular diet. Thus, the traditional cassoulet does not date from the Hundred Years’ War, as is sometimes claimed, but is only three or four centuries old at most.
Cacao – Chocolate
The cacao tree is native to the region of Mexico and Guatemala, where it was cultivated from at least 1500 BC. The Maya and Aztecs would roast the beans, crush them and mix the powder with boiling water seasoned with chilli or musk and honey, or with maize flour. They would then drink the tchacahoua (in Mayan) or tchocoatl (in Aztec), reputed to be an aphrodisiac and drink of the gods. Cacao had such value that the beans served as currency in the Aztec empire.
The Spanish Europeanised this drink by replacing the chilli with vanilla, sugar and cream. They called it chocolate. Cortés brought it back to Spain in 1527. By the end of the 16th century, it was already being discussed throughout Europe, even though its use remained long limited to royal courts and the aristocracy. It would take until the 19th century and industrialisation for chocolate in solid form to be invented and become accessible to the general public.
Chilli, Bell pepper
The chilli comes from Latin America (Mexico, Andes, Amazonia, Caribbean) where it has been cultivated for at least 6,000 years. It was discovered in Cuba by Christopher Columbus, who was seeking the precious spice route to Asia. The latter brought it back to Spain from his first voyage at the end of the 15th century, thinking he had found a variety of black pepper. Basque sailors are said to have been part of his crew, which would explain the early cultivation of a mild chilli in the Espelette region, which has today become a renowned PDO.
The Bell pepper is another variety of mild chilli that has been cultivated in southern Europe from the 18th century onwards. Unlike hot chilli which rapidly conquered Mediterranean and Oriental cuisines, the pepper took longer to establish itself in European gastronomy. Today, chilli in all its forms has become indispensable in countless cuisines across the world, from Hungary (paprika) to Korea (gochugaru) via India and Mexico.
Coffee
The most widespread legend about the origin of coffee tells that a shepherd in Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia) noticed the invigorating effect of this shrub on goats that had consumed it. From the 10th century onwards, farmers in south-western Ethiopia probably roasted coffee beans in embers and ground them into a porridge.
Coffee originally served as a spice with medicinal virtues. Then the spread of coffee expanded in Yemen, from where it was exported to the Arab world from the port of Mocha from the 15th century onwards. Its popularity very likely benefited from the prohibition of alcohol by Islam. It was then called K’hawah, which means “invigorating”. Coffee arrived in Europe around 1600, introduced by Venetian merchants. The first public coffee houses opened in Venice in 1645, then in Oxford in 1650, in London in 1652 and in Paris in 1686. These establishments rapidly became places of intellectual and political debate, playing an important role in the Age of Enlightenment.
Maize (Corn)
Christopher Columbus discovered maize in Cuba in 1492. Maize has been present in the Americas since prehistory, its domestication dating back approximately 9,000 years in Mexico. It is found from Mexico to the Andes, where it constituted the basis of numerous pre-Columbian civilisations’ diet. Whilst in Europe it is believed that maize is necessarily yellow, the ears can in fact be blue, red, white, black or even multicoloured.
It is the staple food of Native Americans, as porridge or flatbread (just as wheat, transformed into bread, is the staple food of Europeans). Its introduction to Europe revolutionised agriculture: polenta became the staple food of northern Italy, whilst the Balkans adopted it massively. This massive adoption led, however, to nutritional deficiencies (pellagra) in regions where it became the almost exclusive basis of diet, because unlike Native Americans who consumed it with lime (nixtamalisation), Europeans were ignorant of this process which releases essential nutrients.
Orange
The orange tree is native to China and South-East Asia. Two periods of introduction of this fruit to Europe can be distinguished. The bitter orange (Citrus aurantium) was transmitted by the Persians to the Arabs between the 11th and 13th centuries. This fruit was planted in Andalusia, Sicily and the Valencian Country, from where it spread to the rest of Europe. Its use remained mainly ornamental and medicinal, its flesh being too bitter for common consumption.
Subsequently, at the end of the 15th century, Portuguese navigators discovered the sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) in China and on the island of Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), and brought it to Europe; its success eventually supplanted the bitter orange. The sweet orange rapidly became a symbol of luxury in 16th-century Europe. Orangeries, greenhouses designed to protect citrus fruits from winter cold, became indispensable elements of aristocratic residences. It was only in the 19th century that the orange became a fruit accessible to the general public.
Peanut (Groundnut)
The peanut is a legume native to Central and South America. The oldest known archaeological remains of peanut pods date from approximately 7,600 years ago and come from Peru. The peanut was therefore already cultivated in South America long before the arrival of the conquistadors, and it played an important role in the diet of pre-Columbian civilisations.
The Aztecs of Mexico called it tlacacahuatl, from which comes the French name cacahuète to designate the fruit. The peanut is mentioned for the first time in a Spanish chronicle of 1569 concerning Peru where, subsequently, peanut pods and seeds have been found in large numbers in pre-Columbian tombs. The Portuguese introduced the peanut to Africa in the 16th century, where it rapidly became an essential food crop. It only reached Europe in the 18th century, initially as a botanical curiosity before becoming an important commercial crop.
Pineapple
Christopher Columbus discovered the pineapple when he arrived in Guadeloupe in 1493. This fruit of the bromeliaceae family is native to Brazil (nana means “fragrant” in Guaraní), but also to northern Argentina and Paraguay.
The Portuguese and then the Spanish introduced the pineapple along maritime routes in the 16th century. The pineapple rapidly became a symbol of luxury and hospitality in aristocratic Europe, so much so that architects integrated it as a decorative motif in noble residences. Around 1880, industrial pineapple cultivation in heated greenhouses developed in the Paris region, northern France and Belgium. It was then a luxury fruit, in competition with tinned imported pineapple from the end of the 19th century, notably from Hawaii where large-scale cultivation began in the 1880s.
Potato
The history of potato domestication begins more than 10,000 years ago in the coastal zone of south-western South America. Neolithic hunter-gatherers learnt to treat its toxic properties in order to consume it. 8,000 years ago, on the Andean Altiplano in the Lake Titicaca region, this domestication resulted in rational practices of cultivation and preservation. The Incas developed hundreds of varieties adapted to different altitudes and climates.
In the 16th century, the Spanish brought it back to Europe. It spread initially in Germany and Switzerland, but the French mistrusted it and considered it as animal feed, or even as a food responsible for leprosy. This mistrust is explained particularly by the fact that the potato belongs to the nightshade family, like the toxic deadly nightshade. Until the day when the pharmacist and agronomist Antoine Parmentier succeeded, in 1778, in convincing all of Paris of the virtues of the potato. He notably organised banquets where all the dishes were potato-based and had a field of potatoes ostentatiously guarded by soldiers during the day, but not at night, thus inciting Parisians to come and “steal” this apparently precious tuber. The potato subsequently became a staple food that enabled European demographic growth in the 19th century.
Squash, courgette, pumpkin
The large cucurbitaceae family comes from the Americas: pumpkin comes from Mexico and the southern United States; winter squash from the temperate regions of South America; butternut squash from north-western Colombia and Mexico. These cucurbits were cultivated in the Americas for at least 10,000 years and formed, along with maize and beans, the “Mesoamerican triad”, the basis of pre-Columbian peoples’ diet. The courgette is a recent variety: it is a small squash harvested before full development (the word appeared in 1929).
The only squash known to ancient Europe is the bottle gourd or calabash (Lagenaria siceraria), native to southern Asia. Apicius devoted a chapter to gourd recipes (Book III, Chapter IV). This gourd served not only as food but also as a container once dried, a use that explains its relatively discreet presence in ancient culinary recipes.
Tomato
The tomato is native to Mexico and the Andean region, where it was consumed by pre-Columbian Indians in the form of chilli sauce. It arrived in Europe in the 16th century via Naples, then under Aragonese rule. Then it travelled up Italy towards Genoa before reaching Nice and Provence. The first European descriptions of the tomato date from the 1540s.
It was initially considered as a medicinal plant and somewhat toxic, due to its belonging to the nightshade family. It was then called “golden apple” (Italian pomodoro, a name it still retains in Italian) or “love apple” (Italian pomo d’amore). This latter name may have come from a linguistic confusion: pomo d’oro (golden apple) becoming pomo d’amore (love apple). It would take until the end of the 18th century for it to be recognised as a vegetable, and the French Revolution for its consumption to really develop. Soldiers of the Revolution and Empire, coming from Provence and southern France where the tomato was already cooked, contributed to its spread throughout France. Today, it is difficult to imagine Italian cuisine without tomato sauce, whilst this use only dates back approximately two centuries.
Turkey
The turkey carries in both its French and English names the geographical errors of early European explorers. The French name dinde (from “d’Inde”, meaning “from India”) reflects Christopher Columbus’s mistake in believing he had discovered a new route to the Indies, whilst he was setting foot on an unknown continent. Similarly, the English name “turkey” arose from the confusion that associated the bird with Turkish merchants who traded exotic goods. In reality, endemic to North America, the wild turkey was the only fowl domesticated and raised in pre-Columbian times, from the north-west of present-day Mexico and south-west of the present-day United States to central Mexico.
Europeans learned of it through the first Spanish colonists who called it “Indian hen” and Jesuit missionaries who brought it back around 1500-1520 to Europe where it spread rapidly. It very quickly became a festive dish in the European aristocracy, particularly associated with Christmas celebrations in numerous countries. Its imposing size and abundant meat made it an ideal dish for banquets. Even today, the turkey retains this status as a festive fowl, particularly during the end-of-year celebrations in Europe and Thanksgiving in North America.
Vanilla
The history of vanilla, the fruit of a tropical orchid parasitic on the trees of Central American jungles, is associated with that of chocolate. The Aztecs, and before them the Maya, flavoured a thick cocoa-based drink with vanilla. These peoples did not, however, themselves cultivate either cocoa or vanilla, due to an unsuitable climate on the high plateaux. These luxury commodities came from trade with neighbouring regions of the hot lands.
It was the Totonacs, occupants of the coastal regions of the Gulf of Mexico around the present-day cities of Veracruz and Papantla, who produced vanilla and supplied it to the Aztec empire. The Spanish discovered vanilla at the beginning of the 16th century during the conquest of the American continent. However, cultivation of Vanilla planifolia, the most fragrant, proved very difficult to succeed outside its native zone for more than three centuries: the meliponine bees, stingless bees that ensure its pollination, were missing. It was only in 1841 that a young 12-year-old enslaved boy from Réunion, Edmond Albius, discovered the manual pollination process that finally enabled vanilla to be cultivated outside Mexico. This discovery revolutionised vanilla production and enabled its development in Madagascar, Réunion and other tropical regions.
Photos: Wikimedia Commons
Further reading
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