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Ancient Origins of Food

162,000 B.C.
Crucial to their survival, early humans on the southern coast of South Africa feasted on a shellfish diet of brown mussels, giant periwinkles and whelks.

108,000 B.C.
Neanderthals on the Italian peninsula cook shellfish.

38,000 B.C.
First evidence found of crudely fashioned fish hooks.

9400 B.C.
Figs from cultivated trees near Jericho, Israel, is the first evidence of domesticated food production.

7000 B.C.
Earliest records of cultivated rice in the Yangzi River Valley, China.

A beverage made from fermented rice, honey and hawthorn fruit is processed in Jiahu, a Neolithic village in Henan Province, near the Yellow River, China.

6500 B.C.
The typical household of Neolithic hunter-gatherers in Çatalhöyük, Turkey, grow their own food and feast on a meat diet of sheep, goats and cattle.

5200 B.C.
Stored in pottery jugs, the earliest known evidence of wine from the Zagros Mountains of western Iran.

Earliest known farming settlement with plant and animal domestication in the Faiyum desert region of Egypt.

4500 B.C.
Cereal crop planting and domesticated animal herding spreads over large areas of Europe.

3300 B.C.
At Hierakonpolis in Egypt, one of the earliest breweries produces more than 1000 litres of beer per day.

3000 B.C.
Overgrazing and over-farming in North Africa exhausts the soil, once green with crops and trees, marking the beginning of the Sahara Desert.

2750 B.C.
Maize cobs (modern corn) are cultivated in Southern Mexico.

2600 B.C.
Sumerians grow barley, bake bread, and make beer.
Metal coins begin to replace barley as legal tender.

2500 B.C.
Use of olive oil is popular in Crete.

2350 B.C.
First domesticated chickens evident in Babylon.

2030 B.C.
Brought to the Tigris Valley from their native India, cucumbers are preserved and eaten as pickles.

2000 B.C.
Salt is produced in the Sichuan Basin of central China, during the dynastic period.

High priests are the guardians of the secret of cheese making in Egypt.

1500 B.C.
All major food plants that are currently being used in the 21st century, with the exception of sugar beets, are being cultivated somewhere in the world.

1453 B.C.
The first Olympians in Greece celebrate victory by wearing wreaths of bay leaf and parsley.

1100 B.C.
During the Shang Dynasty, the Chinese consume a scented beverage made from rice and millet wines flavored with herbs, flowers and tree resins.

Cacao is used to make beverages in Mexico and Central America.

700 B.C.
Wheaten bread is a luxury in Athens, affordable only by the wealthy.

590 B.C.
Olive trees are brought to Italy by Greek settlers.

500 B.C.
Wine-making spreads to France, begining in the Marseilles region followed by Languedoc.

217 B.C.
Hannibal is served raw, cured ham in Parma on his way to fight the Romans.

206 B.C.
The method of stir-frying first appears in China during the Han Dynasty.

79 B.C.
Lucullus imports the first cherry trees from Asia Minor to Rome.

14 A.D.
Marcus Gavius Apicius, the Roman gastronome and nobleman, writes the first known book of recipes,
Of Culinary Matters.

62 A.D.
Roman Emperor Nero Claudius Caesar sends slaves to the mountains of the Apennines, to retrieve snow and ice for freezing a combination of honey and nectar.

200 A.D.
Beekeeping is an important industry in Britain, since honey was the main source of sweetening, a preservative for meat and fruit, and a common ingredient in many dishes and sauces.

407 A.D.
The Romans introduce oyster cultivation to Britain.

500 A.D.
Tamo brings tea from India to China.

600 A.D.
Sushi is introduced in Japan.

700 A.D.
Arab and Persian mariners visit the Spice Islands, and, for the first time introduce Oriental spices, rice and sugar to the Mediterranean markets.

710 A.D.
Sugar is planted in Egypt.

800 A.D.
Alsace wine region is founded in France.

996 A.D.
Cane sugar arrives in Venice from Alexandria.

1000 A.D.
Potatoes and corn are being planted in Peru.

Arab traders bring coffee back to their homeland from Ethiopia and cultivate the plant on plantations for the first time, boiling the beans to create a beverage called "qahwa".

1040 A.D.
Munich opens its first brewery.

1070 A.D.
Roquefort cheese is discovered in France.

1158 A.D.
Munich becomes the center of salt trade.

1191 A.D.
Tea arrives in Japan from China.

1200 A.D.
As cheap grains from the Baltic Sea region make it less profitable to grow wheat, rye, barley and oats-- viniculture increases in parts of France.

1300 A.D.
Metal cauldron boiling and spit roasting are common methods for cooking foods in Medieval Europe.

1350 A.D.
The Shogun of Japan prohibits the drinking of tea.

1400 A.D.
Italian businesses produce pasta for commerce. Men tread barefoot on the pasta dough all day to make it soft, and the valuable product is guarded by night-watchmen.

1450 A.D.
Southwestern Arabia becomes the main port for coffee export. Coffee is already popular in the Middle East for the past century, having been introduced to Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks. Many Muslims avoid the beverage observing that Mohammed did not drink it.

1475 A.D.
In Venice, the first ever printing of a cookbook.

Kiva Han, the world's first coffee shop opens in Turkey.

1498 A.D.
Vasco de Gama, the Portuguese explorer, discovers an all-water route to India and the Spice Islands; freeing Europe from dependence on Venetian middlemen, bringing down the high price of spices.

1519 A.D.
Tomatoes from South America are brought to Europe, and are grown in England and Holland for decorations. Acceptance as a food came many years later, primarily in Spain and Italy.

1525 A.D.
Hops are introduced to England from Artois.

1528 A.D.
Cacao reaches the Old World when Cortés presents the beans from Mexico to King Charles V of Spain, but it's kept a secret from the public for nearly 100 years.

1533 A.D.
Catherine de Medici marries the future King Henri II in France, bringing teams of expert cooks with her from Florence, and introducing food as an art form.

1536 A.D.
The potato is discovered in Peru by Spanish explorer Gonzalo Jiminez de Quesada.

1551 A.D.
The first licensing of alehouses and taverns in England and Wales.

1559 A.D.
Forks are used for the first time at the French court.

1570 A.D.
The potato is brought to Elizabethan England from Spanish America by Sir Walter Raleigh.

1608 A.D.
Englishman Thomas Coryate brings the first forks to England after seeing them in Italy during his travels. Forks are ridiculed as being effeminate and unnecessary. By the mid 1600s, they are considered fashionable luxuries among wealthy British nobles.

1610 A.D.
A monk in Northern Italy shapes a strip of left-over dough into the shape of a child's arms folded in prayer, and bakes it. He calls it "pretiola", meaning "reward" in Latin, and gives them to children who correctly learn their prayers.

1621 A.D.
Popcorn is introduced to the English colonists by Quadequina, brother of the Massasoit, as his contribution to their first Thanksgiving dinner.

1651 A.D.
The Dutch control the clove, nutmeg and cinnamon trade, and forbid uncontrolled planting, punishable by death.

1698 A.D.
Benedictine monk Dom (Pierre) Pérignon, after thirty years as cellar master, perfects the process of making sparkling wine from a blend of Champagne Valley grapes.

1724 A.D.
Gin drinking becomes popular in Great Britain after juniper berries are brought over from Belgium.

1735 A.D.
Extravagant Czarina Anna Ivanova lines the dining room of her Russian winter palace in St. Petersburg with blooming orange trees.

1762 A.D.
Englishman John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, is presented with sliced meat between two pieces of toast, so as not to interfere with his game during a gambling streak.

1766 A.D.
The first separate-table restaurant with menu fare opens in Paris, France by Mathurin Roze de Chanoiseau.

1773 A.D.
"Boston Tea Party" - Colonists protest against a tea duty, imposed by the British.

1789 A.D.
Elijah Craig distills the first bourbon whiskey from corn in Bourbon County, Kentucky.

1805 A.D.
Johann George Lehner creates the frankfurter in Vienna.

1806 A.D.
The cock tail is first described in a New York newspaper as
"... a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters ...".

1810 A.D.
The sugar embargo in Europe makes it necessary to find alternative forms of food preserving, and with the armies and navies on both sides in the Napoleonic wars requiring durable foodstuffs to mount successful campaigns, came the development of preserving food in tin cans.

1825 A.D.
The first metal cans are patented by Englishman Thomas Kensett.

1835 A.D.
Texan settlers develop chili powder as a simpler way to make Mexican dishes.

1846 A.D.
Famine in Ireland caused by the failure of potato crops.

1853 A.D.
Created by American Indian George Crum,
the potato chip becomes all the rage at fancy dinner parties.

1869 A.D.
The first American to achieve commercial success with food, Henry John Heinz, opens a factory at Sharpsburg, PA, to produce grated and prepared horseradish.

1878 A.D.
The Japanese create the first disposable wooden chopsticks (called wari-bashi).

1879 A.D.
Saccharin, an artificial sweetener, is dicovered by Fahlberg and Remser.

1880 A.D.
An unknown St. Louis physician ground peanuts in a hand-cranked meat grinder to make peanut butter, as a nutritious substitute for his patients who couldn't chew meat.

Canned fruits and meats first appear in stores.

1885 A.D.
The first self-service restaurant in the U.S., the "Exchange Buffet", opens opposite the New York Stock Exchange.

1892 A.D.
William Painter of Baltimore invents the crown bottle cap.

1895 A.D.
There are 50,000 to 60,000 soda fountains in the U.S., operating in drug stores, restaurants, confectionaries and roadside push carts.

Madame de Maintenon, mistress of Louis XIV, establishes
Le Cordon Bleu as a cooking school in Paris, France.

1900 A.D.
Chiclets gum, cotton candy and the Hershey's chocolate bar are introduced.  Coca Cola is introduced to Europe (in Britain).

The Michelin Tire Company publishes a 20-page Guide Michelin in France, to identify gas stations, hotels and repair shops along the road.

1901 A.D.
Just-add-water "Instant" coffee was invented in Chicago by the Japanese-American chemist Satori Kato.

1902 A.D.
The Automat Restaurant, with an automatic arrangement for vending food, opens in Philadelphia by the Horn & Hardart Baking Company. The mechanism is imported from Germany.

1906 A.D.
U.S. introduces Pure Foods and Drugs Act.

1914 A.D.
Britain is the world's largest consumer of tinned goods-- mainly meats imported from Australia, the United States, Uruguay and Argentina.

1919 A.D.
Prohibition amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, making it illegal to sell or consume alcoholic beverages. By 1925 there were over 30,000 speakeasies in New York City alone. The 18th amendment was repealed in 1933.

1922 A.D.
The American cocktail becomes popular in Europe.

1923 A.D.
Clarence Birdseye of Brooklyn, New York, invents and perfects a system of packing fresh food into waxed cardboard boxes and flash-freezing under high-pressure.

1931 A.D.
The Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer is published, and goes on to become one of the most popular cookbooks of all time.

1934 A.D.
A refrigeration process for meat is devised.

1942 A.D.
During World War II, the U.S. begins rationing sugar and coffee. Meat, cheese, fats, bubble-gum and canned foods are rationed the next year (1943). 20 million Americans grow their own food.

1945 A.D.
Recorded by the Andrews Sisters, "Rum and Coca-Cola" is a #1 hit on the popular music charts in the U.S.

1954 A.D.
Swanson TV Dinner, a frozen prepared meal neatly divided in a metal tray, is invented. 10 million are sold during the first year of distribution.

1966 A.D.
Ingredients are required to be listed on food packaging in the U.S.

1967 A.D.
12 billion cans of beer and 5.3 billion cans of soft drinks are consumed during the year in the U.S.

1985 A.D.
The first microwaveable popcorn is introduced.

1993 A.D.
The Food Network, a channel dedicated exclusively to food, premieres on cable TV.

2008 A.D.
The average American eats approximately 200 pounds of meat, poultry and fish every year.


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