Chi Siamo

Recently, the Archaeological Park of Pompeii announced the discovery of another equid (either a horse or a mule) within the Casa dei Casti Amanti: a luxurious domus whose front rooms had been converted into a commercial bakery. The news immediately reminded me of an article I wrote in 2019 about this remarkable house and the five equids discovered in a stable beside its bakery.

Finds like these always give me pause. They remind us that the story of Pompeii is also the story of the animals that lived and laboured alongside its people. They powered the mills that fed the town, and like many of their human companions, perished during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.

Apuleius gives us one of the most vivid literary glimpses into the lives of these working animals in The Golden Ass, where Lucius is transformed into a bakery donkey:

“As for my comrades, the animals, what can I say? How can I describe their condition? What a sight! Those old mules and feeble geldings stood round the manger with their heads sunk down, munching through piles of chaff; their necks sagged from the rotting decay of sores; their flabby nostrils were distended from constant coughing; their chests were ulcerated from the continual rubbing of the rope harnesses; their flanks were bare to the bone from everlasting whipping, their hoofs stretched out to abnormal dimensions from their multiple circling, and their entire hide rough with decay and mangy starvation.”

Reading these words while thinking of the equids discovered at the Casa dei Casti Amanti is profoundly moving. The catilli did not turn themselves. Where water power was unavailable, horses and mules were the engines that transformed grain into flour and flour into bread.

In honour of these four-legged pistores, I turned once again to Roman baking and prepared Cato’s Grape Must Cakes.
Read more via link in bio or here:
https://tavolamediterranea.com/2018/09/22/baking-bread-romans-part-v-grape-must-cakes/

Photo: Farrell Monaco

#pompeii #archaeology #animals #bread #bakery ...

One of the most rewarding aspects of our Old School Kitchen Pompeian Master Class is seeing ancient ingredients and techniques brought to life through modern talent and creativity. While staying faithful to Apicius and his pantry, Victoria and Beth took a recipe for sole and applied their own culinary instincts and skills to create a dish that quite simply stole the show that day. Every ingredient was authentically Roman, but the presentation and execution reminded us that ancient recipes were never static: they evolved in the hands of capable cooks, year after year. The result was a sauce of astonishing delicacy and depth of flavour, unlike anything I’ve ever tasted with fish before. It’s moments like these that remind us that experimental culinary archaeology isn’t just about recreating the foods of the past; it’s about discovering just how varied and delicious each rendition can be.
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#Pompeii #food #apicius #recipe #fish ...

Thank you to all of my #Goldbelly buyers who waited patiently for their orders while I was away in Italy. 🙏 I’m back at my ovens... Let the bread times roll!! 😍 Orders can be placed using the link in bio 👆 or by clicking here: https://www.goldbelly.com/restaurants/pistrinum-by-tavola-mediterranea
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#bread #order #online #delivery ...

One of the unexpected lessons from this year’s The Old School Kitchen – Culinaria Pompeiana master class was that the Romans practised what we might call ‘zero-food waste’, not because it was fashionable but because food had value and famine was never far from memory.

During the class, we prepared Columella’s ‘defrutum’: a rich reduction of grape must flavoured with fennel and fenugreek. Rather than discarding the grape and herb pulp, Karen and Victoria followed the Roman mindset and transformed it into Cato’s grape must cakes the very next day. Nothing wasted. Everything given a second life.

This approach would have been familiar to any Roman farmer or cook. For the Romans, the use of so-called ‘food waste’ was not merely economy, it was survival. For example: Cato and Pliny describe preserving and drying fruit that would last through the year, teaching us that every ingredient represented the labour of people, the productivity of the land, and the uncertainty of the next harvest. During our week in Pompeii, we tried to step into that ancient mindset, discovering that some of the most memorable dishes came not from extravagance, but from ingenuity and respect for the ingredients at hand.

These grape must cakes became one of the unexpected highlights of our Pompeian master class. More to follow!

#food #waste #pompeii #roman #cooking ...

Our group made a bread offering at a Marian shrine up at the caldera of Mount Vesuvius. A beautiful location for a shrine, if you ask me, and a fitting place to make an offering too! Yes we offered taralli napoletani… This too is fitting, and beautiful. 🙏 💪 🥯 🌋
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#vesuvius #shrine #offer #bread #mary ...

Modern Ercolano rises directly above the ancient city of Herculaneum, creating one of the most remarkable layers of history anywhere in the world. Beneath the streets, apartment buildings and churches of the modern town lie the extraordinarily preserved remains of the Roman city, entombed beneath 15–20 metres of volcanic material during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Yet what visitors see today is only part of the story:

Archaeologists estimate that roughly 75% of ancient Herculaneum remains buried beneath the modern town, leaving much of the city’s forum, temples, streets, and houses still hidden from view. In this photograph, the relationship is laid bare: the modern city in the foreground, ancient Herculaneum concealed below, and Vesuvius itself standing watch in the background: the very force that destroyed one city and, paradoxically, preserved most of it for nearly two millennia.
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#herculaneum #vesuvius #volcano #archaeology #roman ...