The Tasting Panel magazine

December 2014

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84  /  the tasting panel  /  december 2014 here did restaurants come from anyway? When did people begin to trust others—strang- ers, non-family members—to prepare their food? In the beginning, people grew their own vegetables, killed their own meat, cured it, cooked it and ate it. They lived in family groups and had limited interaction with others. Most of their daily activities revolved around getting and preparing food. Dinner wasn't for entertainment or relaxation, it was for survival. As civilization advanced, however, people discovered that some of them were better hunters, some better farmers and some better cooks. People began to specialize. But eating remained a strictly private affair. The cook was a special- ist, and there was one cook—usually the matriarch—who prepared food within each family unit. This made for easy transfer of cooking know-how between the generations. There were no restaurants yet, but large families made the idea of feeding 30 people at every meal commonplace. The meal hour was a momentary relief from the hardships of everyday life; it was intensely personal and private. But something changed all this. People began to travel. Whether it was to visit market towns to sell goods or to look for better hunting grounds, they were forced to leave the safety and comfort of the family and head out into the unknown and often hostile outside world. A VERY BRIEF AND ALMOST ACCURATE HISTORY OF THE RESTAURANT by Anthony Dias Blue Dining Out

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