I still can't finish it today, and I'm sorry for changing it tomorrow morning.

———— the earliest star chefs

One of the glorious achievements of the Renaissance was the rediscovery of the classical world of ancient Greece and Rome. This discovery was made mainly through the publication of books, as well as various attempts to recreate the ancient Greco-Roman world. In Leonardo da Vinci's time, another culinary classic was revived: Apicius's Dereconquinaria. Apisius was a Roman writer of the late fourth century AD, specializing in gastronomy and cooking. Previously, On the Art of Cooking was known only to scholars in the form of manuscripts. When the book was published as a book in 1498, its impact was far-reaching. "Suddenly, a very different style of cooking was presented to us," wrote Roy Strong, "and it was a culinary practice in a highly sophisticated society where people enjoyed the pleasures of the table and were willing to succumb to any temptation of appetite without a hint of guilt." Strong refers to the far-reaching influence of Apisius as "ancient, referring to ancient Greece and Rome." – Translator's Note: The Humanist Revival of Gastronomy". The Renaissance diet was influenced by it, reviving interest in truffles and other fungi, seafood and caviar, minced meat and sausages, and vegetables like asparagus and cabbage. These foods now have a "hint of Greco-Roman aroma" and are all the rage. Of course, with the resurgence of classical books such as On the Art of Cooking, there is another form of resurgence – the proliferation of gourmets who have devoted themselves to the beauty and pleasure of cooking. You know, during the Renaissance, there were probably more gourmets who could stand on the cusp and lead the popular taste than today.

Broth boiled fresh fava beans

The following recipe is from Martino, and a similar recipe appears in Platina's book, except that the broad bean is translated as "broadbean".

Soak the fava beans in hot water to peel them, just like peeling an almond kernel. After peeling, pour the fava beans into a fine broth and boil, then add a little high-quality bacon. When it's almost ready, add a little chopped parsley and mint leaves. The finished dish needs to have a slightly emerald color to make the diner's appetite tickle. You can also cook peas and other fresh vegetables this way, but you don't need to soak them in hot water as you do with fava beans, just let the peas stay fresh in their thin layer of pods.

Martino and Platina

Mademo Martino was the author of the Libro de Arte Coquinaria, written in 1460. Martino was a scholar chef who served at the court of Sfocha in Milan, but only before Leonardo da Vinci arrived in Milan. He was also the personal chef of Pope Paul II and his successor, Sixtus IV. Roy Strong praised The Art of Cooking: "It marks a new chapter in the history of cooking...... It presents a clear, smooth, well-organized, accurate and precise style that has never been seen in previous recipes, and it is an epoch-making book. ”

The Art of Cooking is not a "book" in the true sense of the word, but a manuscript tied up with a wooden board and calfskin, measuring 9×5.75 inches. The 85-page transcript contains 240 recipes written in Italian, not Latin. About a quarter of them come from older manuscripts, while the rest are Martino's original works.

Cooking of roast suckling pig

This recipe from Martino looks a lot like what many barbecue picnickers in the U.S. do today, except that the former also requires the whole suckling pig to be turned inside out and roasted.

First of all, you need to confirm whether the suckling pig is well cared for. The pig is then disemboweled, all entrails are removed, and rinsed at the length of its spine. Take the pork liver, chop it up, and add fine herbs, a little finely chopped garlic, a handful of good bacon meat, ground cheese, a few eggs, ground pepper and a little saffron. Mix all the ingredients well and place them in the belly of the pig, then turn them inside out so that the skin side is inside, as you would with a tench or carp, and sew the openings and tie them carefully. At this point, the suckling pig can be roasted on a slow fire using a grill or barbecue fork so that both the pork and the stuffing can be cooked. Prepare some spreads – vinegar, pepper and saffron. Take another two to three sprigs of bay, sage or rosemary and use them without stopping to sprinkle the sauce on the suckling pig while baking. Roast goose, duck, crane, rooster and chicken.

In creating The Art of Cooking, Martino abandoned the traditional practice of writing a cookbook – starting with fruits and sweets – and wrote directly about the recipes for meat dishes in the first chapter. Martino's ingenious recipes are the essence of Renaissance Italian culinary art. "Strikingly," writes Roy Strong, "this marked a shift away from superstition about imported spices and toward indigenous herbs such as mint, marjoram, parsley, garlic, fennel, bay, salvia and rosemary." However, despite this, the dominance of spices in cooking continued until the middle of the seventeenth century. ”

Bruno Laurioux, an expert on medieval culinary history, commented on Martino's great achievement: "It is no wonder that Martino's Encyclopedia of the Art of Cooking is regarded as a pioneer of the art of gastronomy compared to the culinary writings of the last few centuries...... Martino's book is imbued with a creative and enterprising spirit that has kept it at the pinnacle of Italian cooking for more than a century. ”

None of Martino's earlier cookbooks contain detailed instructions on how to prepare a dish, because the main purpose of those books was to educate the general audience about a particular style of cooking and its superiority, and to persuade them to use the techniques that correspond to that style. In reality, however, this is not what a real cookbook is intended to be. Food writers write for themselves, and their notes are mainly about reminding them how to make the ideal dish with the given ingredients. At the same time, good chefs are equally comfortable when confronted with other people's recipes, creating the perfect dish with the right ingredients and the right program.

Of course, there is another possible reason why those cooking manuals that predate Martino do not record sufficiently detailed information: people want to keep professional secrets. Like pharmacists, doctors, probes, soothsayers, woodcarvers, painters, and silk dyers, chefs soon realized that their prestige (and the benefits they could receive) was directly proportional to the expertise they possessed—and that knowledge and information would not have become commodities to be freely shared. Unlike today's belief in consumer capitalism, which flaunts individualism, which is essentially the drive to consume in a constant fashion, the individualism of the Renaissance is driven more by the spirit of striving for excellence. This means that people are looking for something new that has not been discovered, rather than having something that everyone has. Even books, one of the first handmade products that could be mechanized in large quantities, were sometimes printed in different ways to maintain a certain uniqueness – for example, the same edition of a book would have a different cover design.

Martino's marzipan tartlets

After the almonds are carefully shelled and peeled, they are pounded to as fine as possible, and the pounded almonds do not need to be sifted. It should be noted that almonds need to be soaked in cold water for more than one day and one night before processing, so that the almonds will be sweeter and more delicious and white in color. In addition, the treated almonds can be peeled by simply rubbing them by hand. When pounding the almonds, you can add a little rose dew to prevent it from becoming too greasy. To make a truly sweet marzipan tart, it's best to use equal weight of white sugar and almonds, and if you like, a pound of sugar and almonds will do. Stir them well with one to two ounces of rose dew. Take a few wafers made of sugar, soak them in rose dew, arrange them to make a border for the pie, add the almond sugar mixture, fill it with a sprinkle of rose dew and sugar and flatten it with a small spoon. Finally, put it in the oven or fireplace and bake it slowly, just like you would with any other pie. At the same time, pay attention to adjust the temperature in the furnace and check it from time to time to prevent baking. Remember, it's best to make the pie a little thinner and not too thick.

However, Martino's work would not have had such a profound impact had it not been for the bold "plagiarism" of Bartolomeo Saki, the librarian of the Vatican (Holy See). Platina's DeHonesta Voluptateet Valetudine, written between 1465 and 1468, is considered to be the first officially printed cookbook. The first edition of the book was printed in 1472 (some believe it was 1475). Twenty and forty of the book's 250 recipes are directly derived from Martino's writings. Nonetheless, Platina's book has many unique features, such as the description of vanilla. It is important to note that Martino and Platina both know each other well and are likely to have worked together for some time. In his book, Platina pays tribute to Martino: "Martinode de Rossi from Milan. Rossi) is the culinary prince of our time, and it was from him that I learned all about cooking. "At that time, there was no such thing as plagiarism, and in the literary and fine arts worlds, writers and artists usually borrowed from each other without saying anything.

The title of Platina's work "voluptate" means pleasure, and its etymology is "voluptas", which means sin in Middle Latin. Platina is here to preach that the physiological pleasure of eating can be correct and reasonable under the right conditions. In this way, Platina legitimizes the need to eat and drink – eating and drinking is no longer just a physiological act, and we should emphasize more that they can bring both physical and emotional pleasure. Thus, On Right Happiness and Good Health is a modern and secular work that is not confined to the Christian tradition and is very practical, even on the subject of cleaning dishes. With this book, Platina put cooking books on the literary scene and made food and dining a popular topic among literati. Platina quotes extensively from Cato, Virgil and Apisius in his book, so that it is a revival of the classical Roman kitchen in addition to its modernity. Leonardo da Vinci's private collection includes transcripts of Platina's treatises, which link da Vinci to the gastronomic world of the early Renaissance – an issue that will be discussed in more detail later.

Red chickpea bisque in Platina

Wash at least one pound of chickpeas in warm water. Place the washed chickpeas in a pan without adding water, and mix in half an ounce of oats, a pinch of oil and salt, twenty grains of crushed pepper, and a small amount of ground cinnamon bark by hand. Turn on the heat and add a gallon of water, sage, rosemary, and chopped parsley root. After boiling, continue to simmer until there are only eight cups left in the pot, at this time you can drip in a small amount of oil, and the dish is ready.

A philosopher, historian and humanist, Platina was born in 1421 and his origins are unknown. He was a high-ranking official in the Library of the Holy See, but had previously been imprisoned and sentenced by Pope Paul II. Platina was a member of the College of Abbreviators, a humanist group in Rome. Paul II ordered the dissolution of the order, and Platina sent a letter to the Pope in protest, and in September 1464, an enraged Paul II imprisoned Platina in CastelSant? Angelo) prison and threatened him with death. Platina's imprisonment lasted until January 1465, when he was freed with the help of Cardinal Gonzaga, but his entanglement with Pope Paul II did not end there.

In 1468, Paul II arrested numerous members of the Roman Academy. "From what is known," writes Mary Ella Milham, the translator of Platina's work, "this informal organization brought together many people of high interest from different strata of Roman society...... They all had a passion for ancient Rome and were known by their classical names within the Academy. Therefore we suspect that they may well have participated in some pagan rituals and even worshipped pagan gods. The "infidels" were imprisoned on charges of plotting to assassinate the Pope, some of whom were tortured. Platina's right arm was badly injured as a result of the torture and he was in urgent need of recuperation and treatment after his release. Millam writes, and then she goes on to point out that Platina is innocent of the accusations: "There is no evidence that the Roman Academy is anti-Christian, although there have been occasional grotesque acts. ”

Platina's stir-fried broad beans

Cook fava beans with onions, figs, sage and a few other herbs you love until soft, then stir-fry in a greased pan. Once sautéed, place on a flat plate or dish to form a cake shape, and sprinkle with spices.

In 1469, Platina was released again, and Paul II died in 1471. His successor, Sixtus IV, valued Platina very much. Platina quickly became the darling of the new pope and wrote TheLivesofthePopes to repay the pope's grace. In 1475, Sistus (who ordered the construction and decoration of the Sistine Chapel) appointed Platina as the first administrator of the Vatican Library, which had a collection of thousands of volumes.