The medieval kitchen revealed; facilities, seasonal foods, strictures of
the church, and the interweaving of foodstuffs with medical theory.
The master cook who worked in the noble kitchens of the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries had to be both practical and knowledgeable. His
apprenticeship acquainted him with a range of culinary skills and a wide
repertoireof seasonal dishes, but he was also required to understand the
inherent qualities of the foodstuffs he handled, as determined by
contemporary medical theories, and to know the lean-day strictures of
the Church. Research in original manuscript sources makes this a
fascinating and authoritative study where little hard fact had
previously existed.