Bon Appétite!  Histories of food in Central-East Europe

The three days international conference, organized in Sibiu by the Lucian Blaga University, offered presentations which pleased science and the culinary taste of the participants as well. Since food and mainly good food has always been an issue for people, it was really interesting to hear about production, culinary techniques, trade, transport, economy of different times and different cultures. The presentations covered themes from Neolithic until the last century and were based on archaeological and written sources, some of the papers presented the results of experimental archaeology. Our team acquainted the ways of vegetable and fruit conservation in Roman times, based on Columella’s recipes, we even set up a small tasting of the pickles and fruit compotes in the coffee break.

As a summary of this nice event, there are some points, which are the same during long long times in food history: food must be kept safe; alcohol is an important product for most societies; food is business; food is a question of culture and possibilities; probably bread is one of the simplest nutriments, but with most recipes, after all it is baked since such a long time.