On Food and Cooking

New World, New Foods Plants — and
especially the spice plants — helped shape
world history in the last five centuries. The
ancient European hunger for Asian spices was
an important driving force in the development
of Italy, Portugal, Spain, Holland, and
England into major sea powers during the
Renaissance. Columbus, Vasco da Gama, John
Cabot, and Magellan were looking for a new
route to the Indies in order to break the
monopoly of Venice and southern Arabia on
the ancient trade in cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg,
and black pepper. They failed in that quest,
but succeeded in opening the “West Indies” to
European exploitation. The New World was
initially disappointing in its yield of sought-
for spices. But vanilla and chillis quickly
became popular; and its wealth of new
vegetables was largely adaptable to Europe’s
climate: so the common bean, corn, squashes,
tomatoes, potatoes, and sweet chillis
eventually became staple ingredients in the