It is said that asparagus was Emperor Augustus’s favourite food. And France is, despite its Gallic spasms, a fundamentally Roman civilisation. Ask nine out of ten Frenchmen if they will have asparagus on their Easter table and they will say ‘mais oui’.
The crunchy, slightly bitter stalk has enthralled humans for millennia due to its strange flavour and supposed medicinal properties. Those proto-French Romans were huge fans of the plant. You may even learn an asparagus recipe or two from studying their methods.
The French smother their asparagus spears in hollandaise or béarnaise sauce
Most of the information on Roman cuisine comes from visual depictions found in frescoes and mosaics that depict what went on during banquets at the time. Luckily for food historians, there’s also De Re Coquinaria, a cookbook, also known simply as Apicius, a moniker attributed to its presumed author and compiler Marcus Gavius Apicius. Along with methods for cooking asparagus are instructions on the correct preparation for flamingos.
Many wealthy Romans instructed their servants to grow asparagus in their villa kitchen gardens as it was considered a delicacy and suggested high status.
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