The Wynn is more my speed anyway.īut Petronius characterizes Trimalchio as an unintelligent freedman despite his wealth: the host mixes up his myths and professes to understand astrological science while his guests fawn over him like Gretchen Wieners over Regina George. One of the centerpieces is a dish fashioned after the zodiac, with twelve foods matching the twelve signs Gemini gets kidneys and testicles while Capricorn gets an entire damn lobster, so this May baby thinks the dish is rigged. Guests feast on sausages set on a silver grill atop plums and pomegranate seeds, peahen’s eggs freshly laid at the table, and a giant boar with live birds flying out of its belly. In Petronius, a wealthy man named Trimalchio hosts an over-the-top dinner party complete with music and dancers, hundred-year-old wine, and a welcome bird in a gilded cage. Perhaps the most well-known literary example of Roman excess can be found in Petronius’ Cena Trimalchionis, a tale whose legacy is so lasting that it inspired its own menu (and subsequent Eidolon article) at Next - the second restaurant by Grant Achatz, famous for putting pine-scented air in a leaking pillow and serving food atop it.
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Juvenal mocks an emperor who acquires a fish so large he has to build a new plate for it, and a patron who invites his client over to dinner only to serve him a totally separate menu from his own, including a single shrimp instead of a whole lobster. Roman satirists poke fun at displays of opulence as ridiculous, wasteful, symptomatic of greed and the degradation of morals in modern society, etc. Suetonius condemns Vitellius (probably for not inviting him to the seven-thousand-fish banquet), and Plautus mocks foreigners who eat delicacies like mackerel, stingray, and porpoise.
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Right: Via Casino Schedule Ease.īut for as long as rich people have eaten expensive food, haters have ridiculed and disdained them for it. By exploring how Romans discussed food at both ends of the spectrum - from sumptuous displays of imported victuals to common ingredients from the local farm - we get a taste of the immorality that they, and we, associate with edible expressions of wealth, and the lengths to which the modern culinary world will go to provide cover for its excesses and appease its gluttonous conscience.
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In fact, examining ancient Roman dining practices can help us better understand modern cuisine’s “horseshoe” trajectory and figure out how fancified farmer food has somehow become the peak of luxury. Years before Yelp reviews and BuzzFeed videos featuring $914 coffee, people consumed lavish banquets and exotic meals, a practice perfected by the ancient Romans. Since antiquity, diners have struggled with wanting the crème brûlée, but also wanting to be someone who is happy with Jell-O. But in fact, paying obscene amounts of money to pretend to eat like a grad student (le sigh) has been going on longer than you might imagine. It’s been called “ superb” and “ other worldly” one reviewer said it “ nearly brought me to tears.” What a uniquely modern experience, some may say, these rich, cosmopolitan foodies jet-setting around the globe to cry tears of joy over fractured dessert, rather than tears of remorse after spending a month’s rent on a single dinner. In fact, these shortcrust smithereens contribute to Osteria Francescana’s consistent ranking as one of the best dining experiences you can find among the nooks and crannies of this English muffin we call the world. Photo by Paolo Terzi for Epicurious.Īlas: you actually can pay tons of money to eat food that looks like it should be sent back to the kitchen. Oops, I Dropped the Lemon Tart, Osteria Francescana.