Being a chef in the Renaissance wasn’t as you would imagine: restaurants as we know them today didn’t exist and the only people who could afford to pay someone to cook for them were kings, lords and Popes. And while Renaissance cuisine has a bit of a niche following, with cookbooks and websites dedicated to it, there’s an uncharacteristic paucity of words about the men who made all that culinary grandeur possible.  

That’s strange, if you think that thanks to their geniality — and possibly  a good dose  of luck — delicacies such as egg and cream based gelato, biancomangiare and even panettone were invented.  Renaissance nobility had a penchant for flamboyancy on the table: think of full roasted wild boars sitting on enormous silver platters, or peacocks decorated with their own feathers, just to give  you an idea. Add pots of rose water to delicately cleanse your fingers between one dish and the other and, voilà! A perfect dinner party Renaissance style is served.