Historic landmarks

History of European cuisine and gastronomy, the heritage of the America, forgotten vegetables, alcohol ( history of distillation), history of pasta...

We provide some landmarks about the history of cuisine and gastronomy.

Some landmarks

  • History of European cuisine and gastronomy: Roman gastronomy, Medieval gastronomy, 17th century cuisine, cuisine classique, nouvelle cuisine, each moment has its own history, with recipes, cooks, tastes and meals.
  • The heritage of the America: Tomato, potato, zucchini, bean, corn, peanut, hot pepper, cacao, vanilla, pineapple... were unknown in Medieval Europe.
Oldcook : historic landmarks - tomato

Imagine Provençale or Italian cooking without the tomato and you will discover the genuine culinary revolution because of these vegetables, all came from America, after the discovery of the American continent by Christopher Columbus in 1492.


Tomato - Photo : Jacques Bouchut

  • Forgotten vegetables : Crosne, Jerusalem artichoke, rutabaga, salsifys, corzonera, all these vegetables with strange names are often more recent than we believe it.
  • Alcohol: History of distillation is a 5000 years old story. In the Middle Ages, hippocras was drunk at the end of the meal to aid digestion and alcohol was used in medecine.
  • Pasta: an in-depth investigation : Fried lasagna from the Greeks and Romans, dried pasta from Palestine, and China - the other country of noodles...

On the French website:



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Repères historiques