Columbian Exchange: Food & Cuisine

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Columbian Exchange: Food & Cuisine

The Columbian Exchange was the widespread exchange of human populations, culture, flora, fauna, diseases, ideas and belief systems between the Old (Europe) and the New World (The Americas) and the African continent. This began in 1492 upon the first voyage of Christopher Columbus to the Americas. What happened next was an ecological revolution. The 15th and the 16th centuries became the Age of exploration and Discovery where Navies and explorers from the Old World, in search of territory and riches for themselves and for their monarchs set forth to 'conquer' the globe introducing plants, animals, cultural practices and such to the Old World and the New, an interchange and transplantation of materials and ideas that changed the world. An interesting facet of this is the effect this interchange had on cuisine and culinary practices. It is expected that human populations subsist on the most available edible foods in their locales. The Amerindians for example had maize, varieties of beans, tomatoes, potatoes, squash, cocoa (chocolate), vanilla, guava, cassava, peanut, papaya, passion fruit, strawberry, pumpkin, lime, sunflower, sweet potato, zucchini and cashew. These are just among the many but these are the ones that made it into European cuisine. Consider for example the impact of potato and tomato. Tomato is considered a staple of Italian and French cuisine while potatoes figure heavily on German, Dutch, Spanish and British cooking. In the Mediterranean potato, avocado, tomato and zucchini are considered as staples of Greek and Turkish cooking while all over Europe, and in fact, all over the world, Chocolate is considered a favourite with varied culinary practices coming up with ...