A Culinary Adventure

Marcus Gavius Apicius

Probably not Marcus Gavius Apicius

it’s the first century AD

You are Marcus Gavius Apicius. We don’t know much about your early life, so we are going to make it up.

Insulae

you live here, in an insulae.

it’s pretty miserable

could be worse. could be Detroit

Popina

Since your insula is likely to catch fire, you eat here for most of your meals.

Popina...where everyone knows your name

Daily Meals

You’re not dirt poor, so you eat 3 meals

what are the daily meals?

what do you eat at each meal?

IentaculumBread

Olive oil, honey, or wine (for dipping)

cheese

Prandiumbread

fruit

olives

Cold meat (if lucky)

wine

CenaPuls (porridge)

Vegetables, onions, garlic

Cheese

fruit

bread

Pane, -is n. this is

what you eat most of the time

its not made from wheat

“How can a nation be great if its bread tastes like Kleenex?“- Julia Child

Coquus you love

food.

all you know is fine dining and breathing

Mensa

it’s your first dinner party

while preparing food, a rouge saxum delicium hits you

you forget all the words about fine dining

Dinner Menu What are

the names of the courses at a banquet?

What dishes are served during each?

Gustumhors d’oeurves

eggsvegetables

shellfishsalt fish

dormice

mulsum

Mensaroast or boiled meat or poultry

wine mixed with water

Mensa Secundafruit

sweets made with honey

wine

more wine

Fancy Foodspavus peacock murena Lampreys

(like an eel, but grosser)

aselli White fish pelamis Tuna fish

scari Parrot fish haedus goat

nuces nuts grues cranes

palma dates attagena Hazel hens

glans acorns gliris dormice

After some time, you become involved in an international luxury food trafficking scheme

Iron Bronze Chef your dishes

make you a culinary star

reveling in your success, you write a cookbook

In convenient 10 scroll format

De Re Coquinaria the world’s

first cookbook is an instant hit

your recipes endure for the ages

Apicius, the most gluttonous gorger of all spendthrifts, established the view that the flamingo's tongue has a specially fine flavor- Pliny the Elder, Natural History

Having heard of the boasted size and sweetness of the shrimps taken near the Libyan coast, Apicius commandeered a boat and crew, but when he arrived, disappointed by the shrimps he was offered by the local fishermen who came alongside in their boats, he turned round and returned to Minturnae "without going ashore": Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae

Garumover 400

of your recipies call for garum, a paste made from fermented fish innards

the blood and innards of the tunny make the best

You took an arrow to the knee...

spend 100 million sestertii on kitchen,

spent all the gifts he had received from the Imperial court

found that he had only 10 million sestertii left

Afraid of dying in relative poverty

not your kitchen