If pastry making is your passion and why not, your job, as well as knowing the tricks of the trade and the many techniques of preparation, you must know its history! We decided to help you by summarizing in a few simple steps the evolution of this discipline to the present day!
In ancient times
The pastry making as we understand it today did not exist: the sweets, like the Latin Crustulae were prepared exclusively with honey … but do not imagine anything gourmand, these sweets were characterized by a combination of ingredients that today would make you turn up your nose!
Middle Ages and modern age
In the Middle Ages the profession of pastry chef was not yet born: sweets were prepared in nuns’ convents and had characteristic names such as “patience” or “supplications“. Until 1500, honey remained the main ingredient with which sweets were prepared: sugar was considered a very expensive spice that few could afford!
Renaissance
In addition to the pastry making of the rich people, in this period the first popular sweets and the so-called “regional” specialties were born, many of which are still prepared today! Some examples? The almond cakes of Benevento, the cannoli of Sicily, the various panforti, nougat, macaroons, focaccia and much more were invented in this period!
From 1600 until today
From 1600 onwards pastry making craft had taken on a more complex form: the art of pastry making began to make use of common principles worldwide, as well as processing techniques and raw materials made available to everybody, from professionals to women who took care of the house!
You would not believe so but… the tiramisu recipe is very recent: the first appearances are registered only from the second half of the 1900!
Today modern pastry making is so varied that it is divided into many groups: cakes, pastries, creams and so on…
