Fwd: Pompeii cuisine

From another list.

Enjoy!
James
_______________________
James Spinti
Proofreading and copyediting of ancient Near Eastern and biblical studies m=
onographs
E-mail: jdspinti at gmail dot com
Phone: 260-445-3118
1835 South Park St
Red Wing MN 55066

> Begin forwarded message:
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> From <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=3Dhttps%3A%2F%2=
Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2019%2F12%2F23%2Ft-magazine%2Fheston-blumenthal-pompeii-=
dinner.html&amp;data=3D02%7C01%7CCLASSICS-L%40lsv.uky.edu%7C620ce117cb28494=
f643008d78d4e1be5%7C2b30530b69b64457b818481cb53d42ae%7C0%7C1%7C637133238925=
967878&amp;sdata=3DQRBIp3Wr14U%2BpMACs4rZ9CN9STAHBzaOIwrrE1Z3LIc%3D&amp;res=
erved=3D0>:
> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D
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> How to Eat Dinner Like the Last Citizens of Pompeii
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> The chef Heston Blumenthal=E2=80=99s latest exploration of historical
> appetites is a menu inspired by the final meals prepared in the doomed
> Roman city.
> By Meara Sharma
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> In A.D. 79, a baker in the Roman town of Pompeii placed some loaves of
> bread in his oven. While they were baking, Mount Vesuvius erupted,
> raining down layers of hot ash and stone that would both extinguish
> life from the town and enshrine its final moments. In excavations some
> two millenniums later, the loaves finally came out of the oven =E2=80=94
> carbonized, but with their shape and texture intact. And on a blustery
> evening last week, a recreation of those loaves graced a banquet at
> the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, where the British chef Heston
> Blumenthal staged a meal inspired by the cuisine of Pompeii.
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> THE T LIST |Sign up here for T=E2=80=99s newsletter, a weekly roundup of =
what
> our editors are noticing and coveting now.
> Image
> Pompeian bread made with heritage flour and activated charcoal; Bay of
> Naples butter infused with squid ink, ponzu and prawns.Credit...Yuki
> Sugiura
> Image
> Buttered black turnips with turnip cream, turnip tops and
> truffle.Credit...Yuki Sugiura
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> The idea for Blumenthal=E2=80=99s dinner emerged from an exhibition at th=
e
> Ashmolean, titled =E2=80=9CLast Supper in Pompeii=E2=80=9D and on display=
 until
> January 12. Before the meal, guests toured the show, a thrilling
> exposition of the Roman appetite, much of which was immortalized by
> the eruption. Excavated frescoes depict wealthy denizens reclining
> before multicourse meals =E2=80=94 they tended to eat small-plates-style,=
 just
> like today=E2=80=99s gourmands. One fish-filled panel celebrates the sea=
=E2=80=99s
> bounty, and on display too are salvaged bottles of garum, a fermented
> fish sauce that the Romans poured on everything. Research has also
> revealed strange delicacies =E2=80=94 such as dormouse, which would have =
been
> stuffed with pork and served as a starter =E2=80=94 as well as the remnan=
ts of
> Mediterranean diet stalwarts: olives, nuts, figs, dates, lentils. A
> curator described a jug of 2,000-year-old-olive oil =E2=80=94 which still
> smells like olives =E2=80=94 as =E2=80=9Cthe closest thing we have to a p=
ortal to the
> ancient world.=E2=80=9D
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> That idea appealed to Blumenthal, whose culinary philosophy revolves
> around nostalgia and the potency of history. His
> three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Berkshire, The Fat Duck, is
> designed to evoke memories of childhood, and his London location,
> Dinner by Heston, takes cues from 14th-century tastes. For the Pompeii
> menu, he and Ashley Palmer-Watts, the executive chef of Dinner by
> Heston, drew on the carbonized food remains on display at the museum
> and the recipes gathered in the first-century Roman cookbook known as
> Apicius, indulging in a bit of time travel as well as innovating upon
> the ethos of the ancients. =E2=80=9CThis isn=E2=80=99t slavishly followin=
g Roman
> recipes,=E2=80=9D said Blumenthal. =E2=80=9CThe past is a jumping-off poi=
nt.=E2=80=9D
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> Come dinnertime, guests gathered around a large horseshoe-shaped table
> in the Ashmolean=E2=80=99s rooftop restaurant. Alongside the blackened br=
ead,
> made with Puglian burnt wheat, heritage spelt and activated charcoal
> (for color), the meal began with a shimmering, lava-esque lump of
> butter infused with squid ink, prawns and ponzu. =E2=80=9CIt=E2=80=99s th=
e Bay of
> Naples in butter,=E2=80=9D said Paul Roberts, the curator of the Ashmolea=
n
> exhibition, recalling a childhood visit to the ancient city. =E2=80=9CAnd=
 it
> tastes like a gulp of the sea.=E2=80=9D Next, in keeping with the Pompeia=
n
> penchant for seafood, was a briny dish of pickled mussels sitting in a
> lovage froth and seasoned with mussel cream and garum. Then, a riff on
> Roman staples =E2=80=94 roast duck and turnips =E2=80=94 finished with Po=
mpeian red
> wine (which the town once produced and exported in abundance).
> Finally, dessert was a rich, goaty libum, a kind of sacrificial
> cheesecake the Romans would offer to household gods.
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> The evening=E2=80=99s menu, which will be available at Dinner by Heston f=
rom
> January through March, is the first in a series of what the chef calls
> =E2=80=9Clast suppers=E2=80=9D =E2=80=94 the team is also planning to tac=
kle the Titanic=E2=80=99s
> final night and Napoleon=E2=80=99s ultimate meal. For Blumenthal, honing =
in on
> specific historical moments doesn=E2=80=99t just provide fodder for an un=
usual
> menu; it=E2=80=99s also an opportunity for some narrative fantasy, and to
> create what he calls a =E2=80=9Cmultisensory=E2=80=9D experience for dine=
rs. As the
> meal unfolded, Blumenthal discussed his kaleidoscopic array of
> influences, from quantum physics and mindfulness to the pliable
> properties of cheese (a Comt=C3=A9 made with bacteria from Blumenthal=E2=
=80=99s
> nostrils and pubic hair was on display at the Victoria & Albert museum
> earlier this year). Taste, he ventured, is more slippery than we might
> think, and inextricably bound up with what we=E2=80=99re seeing, hearing =
and
> thinking. At one point, he took my notebook and wrote the word =E2=80=9Cw=
ine=E2=80=9D
> in big bubble letters. =E2=80=9CHave some of your wine,=E2=80=9D he propo=
sed. I sipped
> from my glass. I thought it tasted smooth, soft. Then he wrote =E2=80=9Cw=
ine=E2=80=9D
> again, this time in sharp, spiky letters, and took a sip of his own.
> =E2=80=9CBitter, right?=E2=80=9D
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> The Romans, too, were multisensory gastronomists; to them, eating and
> drinking was inseparable from life itself. =E2=80=9CThe Latin word for di=
nner
> party is convivium,=E2=80=9D Roberts noted. =E2=80=9CMeaning: living toge=
ther.=E2=80=9D At the
> same time, the Romans often alluded to death in their art and
> literature; its inevitability served to heighten the pleasures of this
> world (even if their notions of the afterlife also involved teeming
> banquets). In one striking mosaic uncovered at Pompeii and now on
> display at the Ashmolean, a smiling skeleton carries two jugs of wine,
> a sly reminder to seize the day.
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> The Pompeii artifacts =E2=80=94 whether an ornate wine goblet, delicately
> carved bone toothpicks, or a pile of petrified grapes =E2=80=94 are imbue=
d
> with a particular pathos, beautifully preserved as a result of
> tragedy. Blumenthal=E2=80=99s meal summoned a similarly eerie poignancy a=
s we
> feasted on these refined, fanciful renderings of dishes rooted in the
> residue of a lost city. But perhaps celebration is always rimmed with
> portent =E2=80=94 then as much as now. Outside, it was wet and windy, the=
 sky
> thick with dark clouds. As the storm descended, the diners began to
> recline, and the wine flowed.
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> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> A version of this article appears in print on Dec. 29, 2019, Section
> ST, Page 3 of the New York edition with the headline: Dining Way Out;
> A Taste of Old Pompeii.