"La cucina Italiana è la madre cucina del mondo." ("The Italian cuisine is the mother cuisine of the (western) world.")

Lorenzo II De' Medici was a banker in Florence who attained significant power and wealth by bankrolling the monarchies of Europe.

When his daughter Catherine De' Medici married King Henry of France in 1547 and she moved there, she brought an entourage of Italian cooks with her. What they shared transformed the French cuisine and with the French penchant for refinement, became the foundation of haute cuisine as we know it.

Read more

Source: http://www.theunion.com