OPERA by Bartolomeo Scappi - 1570
Academia Barilla - Gastronomic Library
Did you know that the "Opera" by M. Bartolomeo Scappi, personal chef to Pope Pius V, is the most complete and systematic cookery treatise of the sixteenth century, a true encyclopedia of gastronomic knowledge, at the origin of a new taxonomy of cuisine?
"Opera" by M. Bartolomeo Scappi (1500–1577), personal chef to Pope Pius V, published in 1570, is the most complete and systematic treatise on cuisine of its century, a true encyclopedia of gastronomic knowledge and a foundational text that created a taxonomy of cuisine.
Many elements make it a culinary monument, whose value goes far beyond the Renaissance. Extraordinary is the depiction of hundreds of kitchen tools and utensils with their names of the time.
For example, it includes the first known depiction of a fork, introduces new preparation methods, and offers practical technical solutions still used by modern food professionals, such as flouring, breading, and sealing white and red meats before cooking.
In addition, the treatise recommends the use of the first ingredients imported from the Americas to create original dishes that highlight their qualities, and it anticipates many features of what would become modern Italian cuisine. How? By including numerous pasta recipes, many of which are flavored with Parmesan cheese, which Scappi called "the best cheese in the world," as well as sweet preparations with puff pastry and shortcrust pastry, and many cold dishes.