Bartolomeo Scappi ( – 13 April 1577) was a famous

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( ) was a period in History of Italy, Italian history between the 14th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Western Europe and marked t ...

chef and food writer, best known for his high profile clients, including being the personal chef of Pope Pius IV.

Biography

Scappi came from Dumenza in

Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...

, Italy, according to the inscription on a stone plaque in the church of Luino.. In April 1536, he organised a banquet while in the service of

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

Lorenzo Campeggio. He served several other cardinals after this, then began to serve pope Pius IV, entering the service of the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Geography * Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy * Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City * Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome * Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...

kitchen. He continued to work as a chef for pope Pius V. Scappi is often considered one of the first internationally renowned

celebrity chef A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become a celebrity. Today, chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations, usually through the media of television and radio, or in Books, printed publications. While telev ...

s. He gained new fame in 1570 when his monumental cookbook, , was published. In the book, he lists about 1,000 recipes of Renaissance cuisine and describes cooking techniques and tools, giving the first known picture of a fork.. He declared

Parmesan Parmesan (, ) is an Italian cuisine, Italian Types of cheese#Hard cheese, hard, Types of cheese#Granular, granular cheese produced from Dairy cattle, cow's milk and aged at least 12 months. It is a Grana (cheese), grana-type cheese, along wit ...

to be the best cheese on earth,. and noted that "the liver of domestic goose raised by the Jews is of extreme size and weighs etweentwo and three pounds",. indicating that Jews of the time were practising the force-feeding used to produce ''

foie gras ; (, ) is a specialty food product made of the liver of a Domestic duck, duck or Domestic goose, goose. According to French law, ''foie gras'' is defined as the liver of a duck or goose fattened by ''gavage'' (force feeding). ''Foie gras'' i ...

''. Reprints of ''Opera'' were continually published from 1570 to 1643.. Scappi died on 13 April 1577, and was buried in the church of in Rome, dedicated to cooks and bakers.. The ''Opera dell'arte del cucinare'' was partially translated into Spanish (''Libro de cozina'', 1599, by ) and Dutch (''Koocboec oft familieren keukenboec'', 1612, by Antonius Magirus).. There is an English translation by the food historian Terence Scully (2008) and modern Dutch translation by Ike Cialona (2015).

Notes

References

*. *. *. *. *. *. 1500s births 1577 deaths 16th-century Roman Catholics Italian Roman Catholic writers Italian chefs Italian cookbook writers Italian food writers {{chef-stub