Culinary Chronicles

A Culinary Renaissance: The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi 

The Renaissance, beginning in northern Italy, is known as an exceptional moment in history of great art, which included the culinary arts. It ushered in a new idea of self-fashioning, meaning man could now create how he would be perceived by society. Yet, still, the powerful nobility and Catholic church remained dominant figures in society. The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi is a product of its time; published in 1570 as a guide for apprentices wanting to become professional cooks in the households of the Renaissance elite. Scappi’s Opera not only provides the knowledge Scappi deemed imperative, but it highlights the aesthetics and values of the Renaissance elite, from dietary practices, “fasting” menus, and how to serve banquets. 

Professional Chefs and The Renaissance 
Scappi’s Opera depicts the requirements a professional cook in the Renaissance working in private residences of the elite where one was expected to be able to cook anything, at any time, for his patron. The primary responsibility of a cook was to adhere to the standards of his employer who expected extravagant, intricately designed banquet menus for large formal and small informal meals with pristine, thoughtful service all coupled with lively entertainment and an opulent atmosphere. Scappis’ Opera outlines what he determined a cook would need to know, from choosing high-quality ingredients –that include meat, fish, honey, lard, and sugar—to menus that adhere to Catholic fasting days (when no meat or daily products were allowed)  He offers strategic menu planning, pastry, dishes for the sick, and engravings depicting an operating kitchen and the equipment needed. According to Scappi, a cook should display knowledge of creating dishes that were pleasant to taste and visually appealing. There is a heightened emphasis on seasonality through not just vegetables but fish as well. Investing in a cook of Scappis' stature — one with vast knowledge of cooking and cooking techniques — was a status symbol of great prestige and places a household in a position of great honor. 

Eating and Entertainment 
In an era of social hierarchy, image was everything. What you ate, how you served it, who you were with, and where you ate were all prominent ways of presenting yourself socially. The wealthy tended to consume more delicate, refined foods like fowl or sturgeon and refined white bread, leaving the coarser and less elegant foods for those of a lesser social class. This practice of diet dictating social status is prevalent in Scappi’s book. A significant inclusion of pies and pastries illustrates its ubiquity in Renaissance cuisine. Ingredients and the dishes also provided conspicuous displays that showed off the cook’s culinary technique.  For example, the employment of visual illusions of one food to recreate the appearance of something else, such as using almonds to replicate the appearance of “cheese” during Lenten fasting days. This is also seen by making worms “appear” on cooked meat with harp strings or making an egg “walk around the room” by putting a live cockroach in an eggshell to simulate an egg walking around. One of Scappis most famous displays was of edible statues of mythological creatures, showcasing nymphs or Greek gods. Entertainment was the hallmark of this cuisine, and professional cooks of the Renaissance used food to create art of the highest form.

Food and Religion 
Scappi’s writings unknowingly become a concentration of the conflicting moralities of the time: one of great self-indulgence and extravagance while still maintaining strict Catholic values that avoided gluttony and embraced asceticism. One sees this in Scappi's Opera through his directions on “fasting days” (Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, all 40 days of Lent, and major Saints’ days) where Catholics were prohibited from eating meat or dairy products, detailing elaborate fish and vegetable recipes. Scappi emphasizes the same quality standards he has during meat days as he provides directions on the preparation of sea fish and freshwater fish, and what fish are better for frying, grilling, or sousing, as well as how to properly preserve fish. Scappi also includes lengthy recipes that are entirely vegetarian, using different legumes and vegetables. Another significant portion of Scappis fasting-day guidelines are the directions on how a cook would substitute dairy or cheese with plant-based substitutes such as almonds.  Even under these dietary restrictions, the banquets held on fasting were still expected to be extremely lavish. Scappi’s perspective is shaped by his career, and reflective of the careers of his peers cooking for prominent figureheads in the Catholic church. Even within the confines of meat and dairy dietary restrictions, professional cooks were still expected to perform and perform well.

For Further Research
Scappi, Bartolomeo, and Terence Scully. The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570): L’arte et Prudenza d’Un Maestro Cuoco. University of Toronto Press, 2008
Secondary Sources
Albala, Ken. A Cultural History of Food in the Renaissance. Bloomsbury Cultural History., 1st ed, Bloomsbury Academic, 2014. 

Albala, Ken. Eating Right in the Renaissance. Berkley: University of California Press, 2002. 

De La Ferte, Mastera Suzane. Food and Feasting in Renaissance Italy, September 2015.

Flandrin, Jean-Louis, Massimo Montanari, and Albert Sonnenfeld, eds. Food: a culinary history from antiquity to the present. Columbia University Press, 1999. 

Parzen, Jeremy. “Please Play with Your Food: An Incomplete Survey of Culinary Wonders in Italian Renaissance Cookery.”. Gastronomica, vol. 4, no. 4, 2004, pp. 25–33.