History of Cooking

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When you sit down at the dining table and eat your perfectly roasted dinner, you probably chat with your family about your day at school or what you want for Christmas, right? But have you ever wondered about the history of the delicious meal youre consuming? In this essay, I discuss a little about our favorite rodents.

Who Was the First Famous Chef?

The first famous chef was a French man named Marie-Antoine Careme. He was quite poor. He started off as a kitchen helper (aged 15) in a Parisian restaurant. Later, he got employed at a Patisserie. His amazing delicacies and desserts were even tasted by Napoleon. Since his cooking was so incredible, he later became the chef of several royals, such as Charles Talleyrand, the prince regent of Great Britain, the prince of Wurttemberg and many more. If you didnt know already, a prince regent is a regent that rules and controls a state because the monarch (royal) is away or ill. Caremes cuisine was most famous for its decorative and beautiful displays.

What Were the First Types of Cooking?

The oldest form of cooking was roasting (with fire). Many people say that it is very likely that cooking with fire was probably accidental. Maybe someone dropped meat into an open fire, and they found out that it tasted much nicer and that it was much easier to eat. The earliest fire-roasting technique was to place the food into the fire (and this time, it wasnt an accident). Some societies actually still cook this way! Later, humans started to wrap food in leaves and steam the food using hot coal. Some ancient paintings have also shown that ancient humans have boiled, fried and roasted their meals.

What Were the First Kinds of Cooking Equipment?

Ovens may be fancy now, but they havent always been. The first recorded oven was invented in 1490. It was invented in France, and was actually made out of bricks and some tiles. A man named Benjamin Thompson (aka Count Rumford) improved the oven considerably. He created an iron stove that could hold and heat many pots at once. Better still, they could all be different temperatures. We can thank the Mesopotamians for the ability to have a cuppa! This is because the first kettle invented was a stove top kettle. It was from around 4000-2000BC, and it was made in Mesopotamia. They were made from iron, and copper only became popular in the 19th century. They are one of the oldest pieces of cooking equipment. Much later, the whistling kettle came along. It was created by Sholom Borgelman just after World War I. There are many more pieces of cooking equipment. However, these two are probably the most ancient and most used.

How Has Cooking Evolved?

Cooking has evolved astonishingly over time. In our modern world, we have invented many different types of cookware to cook food with. Some are very fancy like self-cleaning ovens, whistling kettles, non-stick pots and saucepans, air fryers, blenders, electric stoves and more. Ancient people had quite different cooking techniques to modern people. They put meat in an open fire. We use electric or gas ovens. They used coal to steam food. We use pots and steamer baskets to steam food. They hunted for food. We can just go to woolies or coles. Also, we have many ways to make food taste better. We use oils, sauces, herbs, butter and spices. These add flavor to bland food. Our ancestors mainly ate raw food or plain cooked food – no fancy condiments in those days.

Conclusion

The next time we sit down at our dinner table, we already know that Marie-Antoine Careme was a chef before Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay, and that frying was first and foremost a form of cooking. We are now informed about the evolution of the oven and the kettle and how we use different spices to make our food taste better. But most importantly, we learned how our ancient ancestors helped shape the modern culinary world.

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