Here is the wikipedia take on tomato, where it was 'discovered' and
rediscovered several times throughout the world. The tomato, truly a
gift from the 'Gods', there wouldn't be anything to eat if not for the
queen of fruits! Here, Here! to the tomato!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato

History

The tomato is native to South America. Genetic evidence shows that the
progenitors of tomatoes were herbaceous green plants with small green
fruit with a center of diversity in the highlands of Peru.[3][4] One
species, Solanum lycopersicum, was transported to Mexico where it was
grown and consumed by prehistoric humans. The exact date of
domestication is not known. The first domesticated tomato may have been
a little yellow fruit, similar in size to Cherry tomatoes,[citation
needed] grown by the Aztecs of Central Mexico. Aztec writings mention
tomatoes were prepared with peppers, corn and salt[citation needed].
Many historians[who?] believe that the Spanish explorer Cortez may have
been the first to transfer the small yellow tomato to Europe after he
captured the Aztec city of Tenochtítlan, now Mexico City in 1521.
Others[who?] believe Christopher Columbus, an Italian working for the
Spanish monarchy, was the first European to take back the tomato, as
early as 1493. The earliest discussion of the tomato in European
literature appeared in a herbal written in 1544 by Pietro Andrea
Mattioli, an Italian physician and botanist, who named it pomo d’oro,
golden apple.

Aztecs and other peoples in the region used the fruit in their cooking;
it was being cultivated in southern Mexico and probably other areas by
500BC. It is thought that the Pueblo people believed that those who
witnessed the ingestion of tomato seeds were blessed with powers of
divination.[5] The large, lumpy tomato, a mutation from a smoother,
smaller fruit, originated in Mesoamerica, and may be direct ancestor of
some modern cultivated tomatoes.[4]
Spanish distribution

After the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the Spanish distributed
the tomato throughout their colonies in the Caribbean. They also took it
to the Philippines, from where it spread to southeast Asia and then the
entire Asian continent. The Spanish also brought the tomato to Europe.
It grew easily in Mediterranean climates, and cultivation began in the
1540s. It was probably eaten shortly after it was introduced, and was
certainly being used as food by the early 1600s in Spain. The earliest
discovered cookbook with tomato recipes was published in Naples in 1692,
though the author had apparently obtained these recipes from Spanish
sources[citation needed]. However, in certain areas of Italy, such as
Florence, the fruit was used solely as tabletop decoration before it was
incorporated into the local cuisine in the late 17th or early 18th
century...
more at; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato

--
piedmont, The Practical BBQ'r

http://sites.google.com/site/thepracticalbbqr/