In modern times, Italy is famous for outstanding gourmet cooking. But where did all this begin? The Renaissance (which means "rebirth") was a time of artistic and scientific revival. Food was not excluded from this revival and expansion.

When Marco Polo, a famous Venetian trader and explorer, returned from his lengthy excursion to the Far East, the beginning of the Italian food renaissance was marked. He brought with him both actual spices aand foods from China, but also came back with numerous ideas about how to spice up food. For example, in the Renaissance, people started a method of cooking where they simmer foods in fruits, wine, and spices. Another suggestion was to start the meal with fruit.

The hub of this new cooking revolution was Florence, also the center of artistic and scientific talents. It contained the first contemporary cooking academy, named the Compagna del Paiolo, or the Kettle Company. This guild consisted of only upper crust people, and only 12 members were allowed in. Each member was required to provide a new 'food invention.' One of these was multicolored gelatin, the precursor to today's Jell-O.

The citizens of Florence ate two meals each day, one in the mid-morning, the other just before nightfall. The poor Florentines only had a light meal. They scraped up enough money to buy bread, a rather expensive commodity in Renaissance Florence. Most often they had fruits and vegetables, and they had meat only on Sundays.

The meals of the middle class were somewhat more varied than those of the poor. They would eat fruit or a salad, with meats ranging from pigeon to liver wrapped in membrane. They also had goat cheese with grapes or figs. It was the middle class that gave Italy its reputation for pasta. By the 15th century, pasta was the rage among the middle class Florentines. They would make it by hand, though. A baker would roll out dough, and make it into any shape desired.

The rich even enjoyed a wider variety of food, often trying to astonish their guests with a lavish table spread. They had multiple-course meals, starting with appetizers, which might include fruit or berlingozzo, a type of cake. Capons (veal with sausage,) roast chicken, or pigeon with trout might have been served as the main course, followed by cheese and a dessert.

There were many rules to follow at such a Renaissance feast. For example, it was polite to wipe your mouth with the table cloth, but you could not clean your ears with your fingers. If you had to, you could spit politely, and if you have eaten from your fruit, you were not allowed t offer it to your neighbor. Additionally, toothpicks should not be worn on ones collar. Forks were still rare. A princes from Constantinople (Istanbul) introduced the fork to Venice. The princess never ate anything with her fingers. She ate with a golden two-pronged fork. She later died of a terrible disease. Many people blamed the fork for her demiseh and thought she deserved her fate.

As a beverage accompaniment to the meal, the rich were just beginning to popularize coffee, a then-exotic food from the Middle East. However, coffee wase east. just beginning to be accepted. In actuality, wine was the chief drink in Italy.

The excellenct Italian cooking played a large role in influencing French cuisine. When Catherine de Medici left to marry in France, she brought with her the finest bakers of Florence, and they brought along the art of pastry making.

Back in Italy, however, the rich mostly took their food for granted and started to forget wher it their came from. In fact, farmers were low-class citizens. Oxen were said to be as stupid as the man operating the plow. Farmers were often equated with slaves, and often slaves were hired to farm the land and provide the food. Italy at this time had a shortage of these kinds of workers. The slaves received food and shelter for their work. "Freemen," or farmers without owners, got paid but needed to provide everything for themselves. They were not much better off than the slaves. The only thing they could do that slaves couldn't, was to look for another job.

The baker had an important job as well. The practice at the time was, that a person would bring dough to a baker in the morning, and in the afternoon come and pick up a loaf. They did this because usually, people didn't own an oven to bake their own bread. Corruption was always a concern when one put ones dough in the baker's hands- the customer could never be sure that no dough was stolen.

Livestock was especially important in Renaissance Italy. Pigs were widely used. Hog blood was collected for 'black pudding', made by thickening the blood. Pork was also enjoyed, although some people thought it would cause leprosy. Cattle, also common at the time, weighed approximately only one third of what they would weigh today. Sheep were also smaller and provided approximately1 lb. less wool than today.

Italy was also known for its trade around the world, and Venice was the main trading center. Sailors, however, had quite a different cuisine from those living on the mainland. Sailors enjoyed alcoholic drinks, which they drank more often then water. They drank almost two quarts of wine per day. This was due to the fact that fresh water was very rare at the end of a voyag. To get water they would need to wait for a rainfall since the water all around them was full of salt. Salt was an important ingredient of a sailors meal. It was used to preserve the food that they needed for the long journey. They ate dried and salted peas, lentils, beans, cheese, fish, pork, and pickled beef.

The bread they ate was usually salty and stale. The flour was heavily salted to discourage weevils from burrowing their way in. Stoves to bake bread had just been invented on dry land, but they didn't have any yet at sea.

Renaissance Italy was a place to be swept up in cultural, artistic, and technological literacy. The expansion of food beyond the basics was a part of this rebirth and revolution.