Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

—210 FISH MANIA—VITELLIUS—APICIUS—COOKSthat but barely ;^8o,ooo remained, and despairing of beingable to satisfy the cravings of his hunger from such a miserablepittance he poisoned himself. He is possibly the author of aTreatise (in ten books !) of recipes for new dishes and newsauces for fish ; for one of the latter more than twenty-fiveingredients were necessary, iThe importance attached to cooks and cooking finds acloud of witnesses in Greek and Roman writers. Athenaeusin especial recites their triumphs and their bombastic boasts.So high was the chef's position and so excellent was the cuisinein Greece that we find the Roman ambassadors, who in thesixth century B.C. were sent to investigate the working ofSolon's Laws, bringing home a special report on Cooking !To these Attic cordons bleus in succeeding generations notonly Italy but Persia were glad to send pupils, and payexorbitant fees for tuition. The Attic cook gave himself thesame airs of superiority over his Roman brother, as the Frenchchef over the Anglican—him " of a hundred sects but onlyone sauce." Careme, the chef of Talleyrand (the author ofthis mot), never abated his claim that to the success of theCongress of Vienna he contributed no less than his master. 2His salary,however, does not begin to compare with that ofAntony's cook, ;^30oo a year and " perquisites " galore.^ " The Treatise we now possess is a sort of Cook-Confectioners' Manual,containing a multitude of recipes for preparing and cooking all kinds offlesh, fish, and fowl. From the solecisms of style it is probable that it wascompiled at a late period by one who prefixed the name of Apicius in order toattract attention and insure the circulation of his book."—Smith's Diet.Gk. Rom. Biog. and Myth.Teuffel and Schwabe, History of Roman Literature (trans. G. C. W. Warr,London, 1892), II. 28 f., point out that Ccelius Apicius, the traditional authorof the work de re coquinaria, should rather be Coslii Apicius, i.e. " the Apiciusof Ccelius," Apicius being the title and Coelius the writer. The book wasfounded on Greek originals.In Seneca {ad. Helv., 10), "sestertium milies in cuUnam consumpsit." SeeMartial, III. 22, who flays Apicius with biting scorn in his" Dederas, Apici, bis trecenties ventri,Sed adhuc supererat centiens tibi laxum.Hoc tu gravatus ut famem et sitim ferreSumma venenum potioiie perduxti.Nil est, Apici, tibi gulosius factum."For C. Matius the earliest (in the time of Augustus) and for other Latin writerson Cookery, see Columella, XXI. 4 and 44,^ See A. Hayward, Art of Dining.