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The
article in the Mood Food mid January news headlines has produced an
aggravated reaction from top Chef Fernando Stovell.
The article aimed to highlight
the many occasions when erroneous information about the origins and
ethos behind certain ingredients or dishes is quoted by some chefs on
television. Chef Stovell said on BBC's Saturday Kitchen that salsa
was probably introduced to the Americas from Europe as the tomato
also went from Europe to America.
The well known chef, whose
passion for creating exciting dishes doesn't distract him from
ensuring that the basics always consistently exceed expectation,
feels that he has been misrepresented. Fernando Stovell worked for
four years in the Wellington Club in London before moving to the
Cuckoo Club in 2006. Creating contemporary European food for the 70-cover
restaurant, Stovell has an à la carte menu, a set menu as
well as an exciting tasting.
Stovell points out that he is not
a food historian and the origin of tomatoes is in question as there
is no evidence they came from South America and that the first
mention in print was in Italy.
Editor Peter Grove, who is a food
historian, disagrees. "The article was in no way a reflection
on Chef Stovell's undoubted cooking abilities and his presentation on
Saturday Kitchen was both enjoyable and informative. However, his
information in this instance was incorrect, and I am sure he would be
annoyed if I made incorrect comments about the technical side of
cooking when discussing food history."
Tomatoes were first introduced to
Europe by the Spanish, possibly from Mexico, but more likely from
Peru. A work written by the Dutch herbalist Dodonaeus in the
mid-1500s gives the common name 'pomi del Peru' to the tomato,
indicating that its origin was thought at that time to be Peru.
The tomato still grows wild in
the Peruvian Andes, the land of its origin, but the small, wild
tomato does not bear a great deal of resemblance to the plump, red,
juicy food item that you are likely to pluck from the vegetable bin
at your local supermarket.
It seems, though, that the
ancient Peruvian tribes who would have discovered the plant made
scant use of it as a food source. That privilege belonged to the more
northerly tribes of Central America . The Aztecs called it xitomatl
while other Central American tribes called it tomatl. The
Spanish called it manzana or apple, apparently because that is
what they thought it was. From Spain (or more accurately from the
Spanish) it made its way to Italy where this "apple" was
named pomi d'oro (golden apple). Obviously a yellow or golden
tomato variety, one writer described it as being eaten with "oil,
salt and pepper".
The earliest discussion of the
tomato in European literature appeared in an herbal written in 1544
by Pietro Andrea Mattioli, an Italian physician and botanist, who
named it pomi d'oro, golden apple. However, Mattioli's review
was a bit of bad press for the tomato as he and other distinguished
authors continued to review the tomato as unhealthy or inedible
because of its link to other members of the Solanaceae family,
notably deadly nightshade (Atropus belladonna), as it resembles the
leaves of the tomato plant.
Red tomatoes were also known, but
not yet in Italy. It is likely that they were introduced, not from
Spain, but from Morocco. When they arrived, to differentiate them
from their yellow skinned counterparts, they were given the name of pomo
d'Moro (apple of the Moors). A French visitor, intrigued by this
new food of his Italian hosts, mistranslated that when he reported
upon it upon his return home. For him it became pomme d'amour
or "love apple."
Thus began its reputation as an aphrodisiac.
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