AntiquityNOW is pleased to announce the launch of the 2014 Recipes With a Past, a compendium of dishes derived from our weekly Bon Appetit Wednesday! blog posts. Embracing more than 25 countries and cuisines, this e-book has two new designations for this year’s menus: gluten-free and vegan. Meals in Recipes With a Past are taken from historical recipes or are modern repasts that include ingredients with roots in antiquity.
“AntiquityNOW seeks to show how our common origins in the ancient past unite us as a people,” said Shirley K. Gazsi, president. “Despite geopolitics and divisive social and cultural issues, the fact is that we all share a common heritage on this earth. Recipes With a Past is one way—delectably inspiring, we hope—of reflecting that reality.”
Food has been central to human existence. To quote from the introduction of 2014 Recipes With a Past:
Food nourishes and heals. Food symbolizes social being and belonging. Food tethers us to family and culture. And food can be evocative, conjuring up memories and pulling at heartstrings. Food infuses us with a life force and seduces us with its power—and ignites the imagination to continually explore new horizons of culinary mastery.
Russian Blini
Indeed, according to enlightened minds throughout history, food’s importance lies in the very dimensions of our human experience:
“Food is our common ground, a universal experience.” –James Beard [1]
“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” –J.R.R.Tolkien, The Hobbit [2]
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” –Hippocrates [3]
Grilled Butter Miso Corn
“There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” –Mahatma Gandhi [4]
“A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety.” –Aesop [5]
“The preparation of good food is merely another expression of art, one of the joys of civilized living…” –Dione Lucas [6] (first female graduate of Le Cordon Bleu)
“Food is a gift and should be treated reverentially–romanced and ritualized and seasoned with memory.” –Chris Bohjalian, Secrets of Eden [7]
Chicken Curry in a Hurry. Image credit: John Kernick. realsimple.com
Food as metaphor, food as sustenance, food as symbol, food as inspiration. When we read through Recipes With a Past, we can just picture the scenes at family tables and celebratory gatherings. We can vicariously share the solitary pleasures of a favorite food. As we indulge in Chicken Curry in a Hurry, Salmon Kilawin or even Pre-Colombian Tamales With Black Beans, as we think about the glorious joys of Chocolate and Wattleseed Self-Saucing Pudding or S’more Pie, we are engaging in meals that are more than just the chemical sums of their ingredients. We are experiencing in mind and body and palate what it means to be so very human.
Click here for our 2013 Recipes With a Past.
[1] James Beard’s Quotes on Food and Life. (n.d.). Retrieved December 18, 2014, from https://www.finedininglovers.com/blog/points-of-view/james-beard-quotes/
[2] Gale, S. (1996). Encyclopedia of British humorists: Geoffrey Chaucer to John Cleese. New York: Garland.
[3] Asiado, T. (n.d.). Edible Wild Food. Retrieved December 18, 2014, from http://www.ediblewildfood.com/bios/hippocrates.aspx
[4] Mahatma Gandhi at Lifehack Quotes. (n.d.). Retrieved December 18, 2014.
[5] Aesop quote. (n.d.). Retrieved December 18, 2014, from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/aesop163411.html
[6] A quote by Dione Lucas. (n.d.). Retrieved December 18, 2014, from https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8445-the-preparation-of-good-food-is-merely-another-expression-of
[7] Bohjalian, C. (2010). Secrets of Eden: A novel. New York: Shaye Areheart Books.
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