What Did the Romans Eat? Part 1: Posh Food

When we think about Roman food, most of us imagine wealthy citizens
stuffing their faces with rare delicacies while reclining on their
sides and taking occasional breaks to use the vomitorium (urban
myth alert). In this two-part special, Mary and Charlotte cut
through the fermented fish sauce to look at what the Romans really
ate. And no, the vomitorium was not a place where they made
themselves vomit.  In this first episode, Mary and Charlotte
look at posh food, beginning right at the top - in the imperial
palace. Happily, there are some stories of jaw-dropping
extravagance, including Elagabalus (a fave of the show) hiding
pearls in the rice as a surprise for his guests. And the favourite
dish of the Emperor Vitellius involved pike liver, peacock brain,
flamingo tongue and lamprey sperm - all mixed together. But just as
many emperors favoured a martial diet and household economy.
Augustus - a snack guy - boasted about his ascetic preference for
with cheese, figs and bread. Tiberius was criticised by the elite
for serving leftovers.  You can never trust anecdotes about
the emperors, but most of the stories have a plausibility when you
read them alongside a surviving cookbook - Apicius’ De re
culinaria. Here we find out about garum - or fermented fish sauce
(which Mary thinks is less disgusting than it sounds), animal
wombs, dormice as well as a lot of vegetarian dishes (more to
Charlotte’s taste).  Mary and Charlotte recommend some further
reading: Emperors’ reported eating habits are discussed in Mary’s
Emperor of Rome (Profile pb, 2024)  You can find a complete
(rather lumpy) translation of Apicius online here:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/29728/29728-h/29728-h.htm Several
modern writers collect some of Apicius’ recipes and adapt them for
“the modern kitchen”: eg John Edwards (Rider pb, 2009),  Sally
Grainger (Prospect pb, 2015) and Andrew Dalby (British Museum pb,
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