The Kitchen, and All Its Wonders
By ALICE RAWSTHORN
International Herald Tribune

LONDON -- One of the most sought-after objects in Ancient Roman homes
was an elaborate cooking contraption known as an authepsa. Made of the
finest Corinthian brass, it fulfilled a similar function to a modern
steamer. Cicero recalled one selling for such a high price at auction
that some onlookers thought that a farm had been sold, not a cooking
pot.

Not that today's trophy cookware costs quite as much as a farm, but the
authepsa was the Ancient Roman equivalent of the stratospherically
expensive ovens that now promise to bake soufflés at a temperature set
to the nearest 0.01 degree, and fashionably laboratorial gizmos like
centrifuges, compressors and homogenizers.

The evolution of the tools we have used for cooking and eating is the
theme of a new book, "Consider the Fork: A History of Invention in the
Kitchen," by the British food writer and historian Bee Wilson. Every so
often a book appears that may not necessarily have set out to be about
design, but provides fascinating insights into its impact on a
particular field. This book does so by exploring how the design not only
of the fork, but of everything else that has been used to prepare and
consume food over the centuries has determined what has been eaten in
different eras, and its impact on people's health, well-being and
behavior.

The story begins with prehistoric cups and bowls being made from
whatever material was readily available and fit for purpose. Some
cultures continued this custom, with American Indians cooking in
clamshells, certain Amazonian tribes favoring turtle shells, and
vegetable gourds, animal stomachs and bamboo stems being deployed in
other parts of the world. As Ms. Wilson points out, you can still see
echoes of those makeshift utensils in New England clambakes and the
Scottish tradition of boiling haggis in sheeps' stomachs.

The emergence of ceramic cooking pots made it possible to customize
individual containers that suited different types of food. Boiling up
grains like wheat, maize and rice enabled humans to make more productive
use of the time they had once spent foraging for meat and fish as
hunter-gatherers. Ms. Wilson traces the impact of the culinary
innovations of the Bronze Age and Iron Age, then Ancient Greece and
Rome, where numerous food tools were invented, including the pricey
authepsa. Diets became richer and more varied, but after the fall of the
Roman Empire, many of those utensils disappeared, and for centuries most
cooks were dependent on a single pot, typically a cauldron, that they
used for everything.

Those cauldrons were cooked on blisteringly hot open hearths, which
could be dirty, smelly and dangerous. The cooks in wealthy households
were almost all men, because women's flowing robes were considered to be
fire risks. As male cooks often worked naked or in their underclothes,
it was deemed unseemly for female servants to see them, and they were
confined to dairies and sculleries. Open hearth cooking disappeared in
many European countries with the adoption of closed brick chimneys and
cast iron fire grates during the 16th and 17th centuries. Kitchens
became cleaner, women were hired as cooks, shiny brass and pewter pots
replaced grimy cast iron cauldrons, and the trophy kitchenware
phenomenon began.

The design of new kitchen tools has since been triggered by
unpredictable combinations of instinct, ingenuity and technology.
Sometimes, the catalyst was the development of a new material or
manufacturing process, like carbon steel, which was used to produce
sharper, more intricate knives from the 18th century onward. Until then,
most Europeans had eaten using a single knife and carried it with them
for the purpose. The availability of more sophisticated knives enabled
cooks to be more inventive. French chefs proved to be particularly adept
at devising new uses for them and the cutting techniques they developed,
including slicing food into long, thin julienne strips or chopping it
finely into mince, became the foundation of haute cuisine, which was to
dominate fine dining for centuries.

Other innovations were the work of doughty individuals who pursued
specific goals. The automatic pop-up toaster was invented in 1921 by
Charles Strite, a mechanic in Minnesota, who was fed up with eating the
burned toast in his factory canteen. Similarly, the Cuisinart food
processor was developed in the early 1970s by an American engineer, Carl
Sontheimer, who loved classic French food and sought a simpler means of
making it. After acquiring the U.S. distribution rights for a 1960s
French processor, the Robo-Coupe, he dismembered it in his garage and
redesigned it.

The frozen food phenomenon was hatched by an American
biologist-turned-fur trapper, Clarence Birdseye, when he and his family
were living in the icy Labrador region of northern Canada in the 1910s.
Having noticed that their fish and game tasted better in winter than
summer, he realized it was because it had frozen faster and worked out
how to replicate that process on an industrial scale. There are
parallels between his experiments and those of the pioneers of molecular
gastronomy, like the Spanish chef Ferran Adrià, who works with designers
to develop the specialist tools required to make his dishes, and to eat
them.

The origins of other kitchen tools are more enigmatic, having evolved by
trial and error. Like the formidable Chinese knife, the tou, which is
equally adept at mincing meat, chopping firewood, slaughtering pigs and
crushing garlic. "Perhaps no knife is quite as multifunctional, or quite
as essential to a food culture," Ms. Wilson writes.

One of the delights of "Consider the Fork" is that her fascination with
the history of food is balanced by the pleasure she takes in preparing
dishes herself, watching others do so and, best of all, tasting the
results. Ms. Wilson's design critiques of different utensils, from the
humble wooden spoon to a snazzy sous-vide water bath, are all the more
convincing for being made by a knowledgeable and passionate cook, who
isn't afraid to admit to her failures, yet longs for delicious
successes.

Victor Sack wrote:
> The Kitchen, and All Its Wonders
> By ALICE RAWSTHORN
> International Herald Tribune
>
> LONDON -- One of the most sought-after objects in Ancient Roman homes
> was an elaborate cooking contraption known as an authepsa. Made of the
> finest Corinthian brass, it fulfilled a similar function to a modern
> steamer. Cicero recalled one selling for such a high price at auction
> that some onlookers thought that a farm had been sold, not a cooking
> pot.
>
> Not that today's trophy cookware costs quite as much as a farm, but the
> authepsa was the Ancient Roman equivalent of the stratospherically
> expensive ovens that now promise to bake soufflés at a temperature set
> to the nearest 0.01 degree, and fashionably laboratorial gizmos like
> centrifuges, compressors and homogenizers.
>
> The evolution of the tools we have used for cooking and eating is the
> theme of a new book, "Consider the Fork: A History of Invention in the
> Kitchen," by the British food writer and historian Bee Wilson. Every so
> often a book appears that may not necessarily have set out to be about
> design, but provides fascinating insights into its impact on a
> particular field. This book does so by exploring how the design not only
> of the fork, but of everything else that has been used to prepare and
> consume food over the centuries has determined what has been eaten in
> different eras, and its impact on people's health, well-being and
> behavior.
>
> The story begins with prehistoric cups and bowls being made from
> whatever material was readily available and fit for purpose. Some
> cultures continued this custom, with American Indians cooking in
> clamshells, certain Amazonian tribes favoring turtle shells, and
> vegetable gourds, animal stomachs and bamboo stems being deployed in
> other parts of the world. As Ms. Wilson points out, you can still see
> echoes of those makeshift utensils in New England clambakes and the
> Scottish tradition of boiling haggis in sheeps' stomachs.
>
> The emergence of ceramic cooking pots made it possible to customize
> individual containers that suited different types of food. Boiling up
> grains like wheat, maize and rice enabled humans to make more productive
> use of the time they had once spent foraging for meat and fish as
> hunter-gatherers. Ms. Wilson traces the impact of the culinary
> innovations of the Bronze Age and Iron Age, then Ancient Greece and
> Rome, where numerous food tools were invented, including the pricey
> authepsa. Diets became richer and more varied, but after the fall of the
> Roman Empire, many of those utensils disappeared, and for centuries most
> cooks were dependent on a single pot, typically a cauldron, that they
> used for everything.
>
> Those cauldrons were cooked on blisteringly hot open hearths, which
> could be dirty, smelly and dangerous. The cooks in wealthy households
> were almost all men, because women's flowing robes were considered to be
> fire risks. As male cooks often worked naked or in their underclothes,
> it was deemed unseemly for female servants to see them, and they were
> confined to dairies and sculleries. Open hearth cooking disappeared in
> many European countries with the adoption of closed brick chimneys and
> cast iron fire grates during the 16th and 17th centuries. Kitchens
> became cleaner, women were hired as cooks, shiny brass and pewter pots
> replaced grimy cast iron cauldrons, and the trophy kitchenware
> phenomenon began.
>
> The design of new kitchen tools has since been triggered by
> unpredictable combinations of instinct, ingenuity and technology.
> Sometimes, the catalyst was the development of a new material or
> manufacturing process, like carbon steel, which was used to produce
> sharper, more intricate knives from the 18th century onward. Until then,
> most Europeans had eaten using a single knife and carried it with them
> for the purpose. The availability of more sophisticated knives enabled
> cooks to be more inventive. French chefs proved to be particularly adept
> at devising new uses for them and the cutting techniques they developed,
> including slicing food into long, thin julienne strips or chopping it
> finely into mince, became the foundation of haute cuisine, which was to
> dominate fine dining for centuries.
>
> Other innovations were the work of doughty individuals who pursued
> specific goals. The automatic pop-up toaster was invented in 1921 by
> Charles Strite, a mechanic in Minnesota, who was fed up with eating the
> burned toast in his factory canteen. Similarly, the Cuisinart food
> processor was developed in the early 1970s by an American engineer, Carl
> Sontheimer, who loved classic French food and sought a simpler means of
> making it. After acquiring the U.S. distribution rights for a 1960s
> French processor, the Robo-Coupe, he dismembered it in his garage and
> redesigned it.
>
> The frozen food phenomenon was hatched by an American
> biologist-turned-fur trapper, Clarence Birdseye, when he and his family
> were living in the icy Labrador region of northern Canada in the 1910s.
> Having noticed that their fish and game tasted better in winter than
> summer, he realized it was because it had frozen faster and worked out
> how to replicate that process on an industrial scale. There are
> parallels between his experiments and those of the pioneers of molecular
> gastronomy, like the Spanish chef Ferran Adrià, who works with designers
> to develop the specialist tools required to make his dishes, and to eat
> them.
>
> The origins of other kitchen tools are more enigmatic, having evolved by
> trial and error. Like the formidable Chinese knife, the tou, which is
> equally adept at mincing meat, chopping firewood, slaughtering pigs and
> crushing garlic. "Perhaps no knife is quite as multifunctional, or quite
> as essential to a food culture," Ms. Wilson writes.
>
> One of the delights of "Consider the Fork" is that her fascination with
> the history of food is balanced by the pleasure she takes in preparing
> dishes herself, watching others do so and, best of all, tasting the
> results. Ms. Wilson's design critiques of different utensils, from the
> humble wooden spoon to a snazzy sous-vide water bath, are all the more
> convincing for being made by a knowledgeable and passionate cook, who
> isn't afraid to admit to her failures, yet longs for delicious
> successes.

Interesting--and saved.