Roy Strong: A History of Grand Eating

Reviewed by SUE BAXALLE

A carver enters dressed as a huntsman and plunges his knife into a boar's flanks, whereupon thrushes fly out, circling the room until they are trapped.

A pig slashed open gushes sausages and black puddings; acrobats and actors perform while golden crowns and jars of perfume descend from the ceiling. Cakes spurt saffron at the guests.

Slaves bear in pitchers from which oysters and scallops cascade.

Such are the scenes with which Roy Strong introduces his History of Grand Eating.

Strong, former director of London's Victoria & Albert Museum, aims to guide the reader through the culinary ages, starting with the Roman love of surprise (such as the sausages falling from the pig) and opulence. He takes the reader through to the modern age.

The title, Feast, implies upper-class eating, but it was from the tables of the rich that major changes in culinary habits came.

The table was integral to politics and society as a whole.

Writes Strong: "Conviviality, to both the Greeks and Romans, was seen as one of the cornerstones of civilisation; the table and those bidden to gather round it and share its pleasures could be a vehicle for social aggregation and unity; but equally it could encourage social distinctions."

Strong says in Greece and Rome feasting was male-dominated.

Formal eating was ceremonial, hierarchical and contained spectacles such as theatre, music and dance.

The book assumes we will look elsewhere for the recipes, and although Strong does touch on the cooking methods and habits of the common people, his aim is to illustrate the development of the shared meal, an event which can have a variety of purposes from the political to the ceremonial, marking marriage, victory, a coming-of-age or a funeral.

The feast or banquet was a a means of flattering and influencing the powerful as well as providing conversation and entertainment.

He gleans much of his knowledge of ancient times from writing.

The dinner party of the Renaissance is researched through literature and diary entries.

Feast offers an insight into history with a look at the ingredients that made up the gatherings - the people, the clothes, the food, the manners, cutlery and tableware, the role of alcohol, the cultural symbolism of food, theatre and opera at table and the development of the cookbook.

In the 1500s, ostentation and elaboration in everything connected with the table was the fashion.

By 1517 excessive fare at banquets in England had become so out of hand that a proclamation decreed that the number of courses should be regulated according to the rank of the highest person present: nine courses for a cardinal, six for a lord of Parliament and three for a citizen with a yearly income of £500.

The 15th century saw the introduction of breakfast; the practice was still rare and elite. In 1478, for example, Edward IV's household permitted breakfast only to those above the rank of squire.

A book of etiquette, from about 1475, includes warnings to cut bread with a knife rather than breaking it, to eat soup with a spoon, not drink it, to refrain from picking your nose, teeth or nails. It advised not to stuff your mouth, don't put meat into your mouth with your knife, and most important, don't eat like a peasant.

Speak only when spoken to, it continued. Wipe your mouth before drinking, share any good food with guests, stay seated until the final hand-washing, and attend to the washing of any lady nearby.

The Renaissance saw a movement to rediscover the classical world.

While many of the Greek and Roman dishes had survived the Middle Ages, the recovery of the ancient culinary texts enabled forgotten recipes to be revived.

Renaissance food retained the medieval core, but was refined and enlarged with the modern discoveries of new ingredients from America: tomatoes, pumpkin, maize and beans.

Beef and veal, previously considered lower-class meats, gained acceptance at the high-class table.

Assuming his readers are more familiar with the 18th century, Strong concentrates on the development of private dining and shifting eating patterns and social and culinary changes associated with rising living standards due to industrialisation and urbanisation.

The old middle-class professions, such as doctors and lawyers, were joined by new ones - industrialists, bankers and brokers, insurers, shippers, engineers and designers, and more.

Family meals became more significant and by 1850 anyone who was anyone - or who thought they were - had a dining-room.

The 19th century introduced an exciting new development, the restaurant, which broke the monopoly of the elite, bringing fine eating to anyone who could afford it.

The 20th century became a post-table age. Eating habits, says Strong, became untidy and diffuse, lacking the clarity of earlier centuries.

He blames the era of grazing and the deconstruction of meal rituals, ending with the reproach: "At least among the educated classes the private dinner party lives on. For that we should be grateful."

* Random House, $35