A Culinary Adventure

 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.

 you live here, in an insulae.  it’s pretty miserable could be worse. could be Detroit

 Since your insula is likely to catch fire, you eat here for most of your meals. Popina...where everyone knows your name

 You’re not dirt poor, so you eat 3 meals  what are the daily meals?  what do you eat at each meal? Ientaculum Bread Olive oil, honey, or wine (for dipping) cheese Prandium bread fruit olives Cold meat (if lucky) wine Cena Puls (porridge) Vegetables, onions, garlic Cheese fruit bread

 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

 you love food.  all you know is fine dining and breathing

 it’s your first dinner party  while preparing food, a rouge saxum delicium hits you  you forget all the words about fine dining

 What are the names of the courses at a banquet?  What dishes are served during each? Gustum hors d’oeurves eggs vegetables shellfish salt fish dormice mulsum Mensa roast or boiled meat or poultry wine mixed with water Mensa Secunda fruit sweets made with honey wine more wine

pavuspeacockmurenaLampreys (like an eel, but grosser) aselliWhite fishpelamisTuna fish scariParrot fishhaedusgoat nucesnutsgruescranes palmadatesattagenaHazel hens glansacornsglirisdormice  After some time, you become involved in an international luxury food trafficking scheme

 your dishes make you a culinary star  reveling in your success, you write a cookbook In convenient 10 scroll format

 the world’s first cookbook is an instant hit  your recipes endure for the ages 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

 over 400 of your recipies call for garum, a paste made from fermented fish innards the blood and innards of the tunny make the best

 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