The Lakes Kitchen - The Italian Lakes - page 483

Cooking in the Renaissance
As with art, music and architecture, the Renaissance was a period of culinary creativity.
Italy's urban food system became more sophisticated, and political power and wealth were
increasingly displayed at the table. Sugar and spices became a European addiction, and saf-
fron, nutmeg, cloves, cardamon and pepper entered the cooking repertoire, giving us sweet
and sour dishes such as agnoli (ravioli stuffed with capon, cinnamon and cloves),
sbrisolona (a hard biscuit with almonds) and mostarda (candied fruit and mustard relish).
Opulent banquets combined food with theatre, music and dance for the first time.
Leonardo da Vinci was even drafted in to design sets for the wedding banquet of Milan's
Gian Galeazzo Sforza and Isabella of Aragon in 1489. Cristoforo da Messisbugo's 1548
Banquets gives us some idea of their scale and extravagance. A record of the wedding feast
of the Duke of Ferrara's son Ercole to Renée, the daughter of Louis XII of France, offers us
an endless list of courses, gifts and entertainments - shocking in light of the plague that
was decimating the countryside around Ferrara at the time.
At a rough calculation each of the guests had to plough through 18 large portions of fish,
three whole birds, three portions of meat, sausage, salame and ham, 15 pastries and pies, as
well as sweetmeats and an early morning collation of fruit in sugar and syrup. They were
seated carefully, according to rank, their places affording access (or not) to the choicest
dishes. The Duke's sister, Isabella d'Este (the Marchioness of Mantua, and one of the most
esteemed dinner guests of the Renaissance), sat at his right hand, and the Venetian ambas-
sador was prominently placed so he could report back on the costly spectacle.
Below stairs, a similar charade of political maneuvering was going on in the kitchen as
the Este's cook brokered new relationships with possible patrons and suppliers. Unlike
courtiers, cooks came from rural backgrounds. As the seasons and their employer's fancies
changed, they networked constantly to find suppliers and discover new recipes. It was
through cooks that an understanding of good food circulated between rich and poor, the
country and the town.
In 1661 the first known law for the protection of a local Italian speciality was issued, protecting the herit-
age recipe for mortadella (pork cold cut) .