Eating an Ancient Roman Meal with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Eating an Ancient Roman Meal with Juilliard Graduate Florence Paget and Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

The sentence “Elegant and easy recipes from history’s first gourmet” convinced me to make a meal using recipes from the first century Roman cookbook by Apicius called De Re Coquineria.

Apicius’ cookbook was updated by author John Edwards in his book Roman Cookery with items such as American measures.  According to Edwards there were three foodies named Apicius in ancient Rome.  Apicius was a name akin to “Miss Manners.
My ancient Roman meal plan would support my daughter Florence’s study of ancient Rome at her Waldorf School.

I announced my meal project to Florence on the way home from school in the car.

“You’re not doing one of those educational meals again,” Florence practically wailed.

“Don’t worry.  You’ll like it,” I said despite remembering some of my ethnic first-try foods like gummy tagliatelle and sludgy rice.

“I’m making artichokes and chicken,” I said without elaborating on the sweet, tart, savory, and minty flavor combinations used in some of the dishes.  I let the subject drop and discreetly gathered the ingredients.

When the weekend rolled around, I told my family that I was making steamed artichokes, sautéed chicken, and stewed peaches without mentioning the Roman part.  Artichokes unlike tomatoes appeared on Roman tables from the beginnings of time.  (Tomatoes came from the Americas.)

The artichokes were steamed with vegetable stock to which I added black pepper (native to the Malabar Coast of India and coming to Rome through its Levantine possessions in modern-day Syria), cumin (coming Egypt, another Roman colony), and olive oil.

My husband Laurent, Florence, and I gathered around a plate of the cooled artichokes.  We peeled off the leaves and dunked the edible leaf bases into olive oil and vinegar dressing.  The cumin flavor made the artichokes taste almost like meat.  I learned that black pepper can give foods a little zing just by using it in the water to steam something.

“These artichokes are really good,” Florence said, which encouraged me to reveal their source.

“They’re Roman artichokes,” I nonchalantly added.  Florence and Laurent looked at each other with better-eat-what’s-good-now glances.

“Maybe Caesar ate artichokes like these,” I ventured, warming up to my food-as-history lesson.

“Caesar was too busy fighting to eat good food,” Florence remarked.

“It’s so boring to learn about fighting,” she continued.  She went on to tell us about Caesar and the Gauls, Caesar and Pompey, and Caesar and Cleopatra.  She certainly had retained a lot about her boring school subject.

I offered some more artichokes to my family.  With America’s artichoke capital, Castroville, nearby, we could eat these almost everyday.

I then prepared chicken by adding grounds herbs and spices to a saucepan of chicken stock flavored with red wine vinegar, chopped dates, honey, and olive oil.  I brought the chicken to the table and brought up the topic of Rome again.

“Have you been studying the Aeneid?” I asked.

“That story is so sad when Aeneas leaves Queen Dido,” Florence said.

“Aeneas had to leave Queen Dido and Carthage to found Rome,” I told her.

“Why didn’t he just stay with the woman he loved,” my young Californian asked.

“Because he had to serve his people.  Part of being Roman is doing things for the good of others even when you want to do something differently.  It’s a lot like being a parent sometimes,” I said and smiled at Florence.

“Will you show me how to make the Roman chicken?” she asked.

“Of course,” I said.

I smiled again and wondered if Roman matrons with houses full of servants got to show their daughters how to cook.

By Ruth Paget - Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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