[Herbalist] FWD: Eating at Magna Roma

Ted Kubricht tedk at ieee.org
Wed Sep 18 15:09:30 PDT 2002


I prepared an early period Greek feast several years ago and used this book
for many of my recipes:

The Classical Cookbook, Andrew Dalby and Sally Grainger, British Museum
Press, 1996



I also used several books I had found at the library on ancient Roman
cooking, but can't find my notes listing them.



I used nuoc nam instead of garum, and found asofetida at the Whole Foods
Market.



Vaclav Namatko





----- Original Message -----
From: "Gaylin Walli" <iasmin at comcast.net>
To: "Midrealm Cooks List" <mk-cooks at midrealm.org>;
<godecookery at yahoogroups.com>; <herbalist at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2002 6:04 AM
Subject: [Herbalist] FWD: Eating at Magna Roma


For those of you either travelling or interested in reports of period
cooking being put to good use in the mundane world, I asked the
original poster, Marco Berni, if he wouldn't mind if I shared this
restaurant review with you. The review is also posted at the
http://www.ancientworlds.net/ website if you'd rather read it
there. Enjoy! -- Iasmin/Gaylin

-----

Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 20:04:12 +0200
From: Marco Berni <mberni at tiscalinet.it>
Subject: Re: [Apicius] Eating at Magna Roma

Last friday I had the pleasure of dining at Magna Roma.  I thought  a
review might be in order.

Marco

Cena at Magna Roma

By Marco Berni aka Caius Livius

Some of you that know me from times past know that I used to be a
restaurateur.  After 15 years running restaurants in the UK I moved to
Italy and one of the principle ideas I had at the time was to open a
restaurant in Rome that served food inspired by the cuisine of Ancient
Rome.

Sadly this dream never became a reality for me (for a number of
reasons, all too boring to mention here), but as with all 'original'
ideas, for there were no such restaurants in Rome at the time, it was
inevitable that some enterprising soul would eventually have the same
idea and back it with more conviction to see it succeed.

In 2001 an Italian archeologist, decided that Rome needed a historical
restaurant and that the recipes of Apicius, Cato, Varro, Petronius et
al needed to be brought to life for all who wanted to try.  With the
collaboration and presumably, backing of the city of Rome, Magna Roma
was born.

Situated in a quiet side-street between the Colloseum and the Domus
Aurea; Via Capo D'Africa, nestles a little jewel of a restaurant, a
labour of love and temple to absolute attention to detail.

For whereas I was a restaurateur with a casual interest in ancient
cuisine that could smell an untapped commercial idea, Magna Roma's
founder is a food historian with a profound desire to bring REAL Roman
food to life.

Let me take you through the door...

The decor is in period, frescoed panels blend with stuccoed walls,
vaulted ceilings, hanging terracotta oil lanterns, bronzed door and
window panels, you name it, it's in period.

Just inside the door lies the counter of the thermopolium, complete
with three lidded sunken pots.  The Magister Cenae welcomes guests by
dipping deep into one of the pots with his ligula for a cup of cooled
mulsum and invites you to partake of the nuts and dried fruits by the
small shrine dedicated to the lares and penates of the house.

Following a latin toast of "EVOE' !" you are shown to your table.
There are no triclinia yet but one of the three small rooms is intended
for conversion soon.  The chairs are covered in rich red linen covers,
with a matching table cloth topped with two contrasting mappa for the
wiping of fingers and the taking home of the left-overs of your meal
(we did not try taking these, but he was the one that suggested it...).
   On the table lie the crockery and cutlery of the period, cochlear
(Roman spoon with a spike at one end for extracting snails), plate,
cup, salinum (salt pot) all made of matching terracotta (glazed to keep
the health inspectors happy) and stamped with the Magna Roma logo.  A
jug for wine or water and small stand with two glass miniature
amphorae, one of olive oil, the other of garum, complete the picture.
See Note 2 below.

The menu is presented as a small scroll held by a brass ring, unravel
it and on one side is a presentation describing the restaurant, its
inspiration and its mission statement (in Italian and English) and on
the other the menu in the same two languages.

Here you can choose one of the fixed price formulae featuring a set
number of courses from the dishes of the day or choose individually
from the a la carte menu.  Prices are reasonable by international
standards, ranging from ¤31 to ¤38 for the set menus, but the format is
confusing in that the formula imply that dishes can be chosen from the
alla carte (whereas they can't  and if you do this you pay the full
alla carte price for each dish).  This is just a small matter, but one
that needs to be clearer as it led to me ordering from all the courses
I thought were included in the price only to find that I could have
skipped some as I would be paying individually in any event and this
would have saved not only my wallet but also the growing realization
that a visit to the local vomitorium was an absolute necessity
following a full Roman meal.

First of all the toast continues with the ritual of initiation to
dinner, or gustaticium.  This consists of a plate of sacral foods with
religious significance and rather frugal nature.  These included ovo
(hard boiled egg), moretum (on bread) epitrium (on bread), libum,
capers, lupines, hazelnuts, pistacchios, and walnuts.  This course must
be accompanied by your cup of mulsum, which you are told not to finish
until this course arrives.

The Magister Cenae or the Magirus join you during the consumption of
the gustaticium and indeed at each course, time permitting, to discuss
the foods and the lengths to which he has gone to ensure the fidelity
of the dish to the original recipe.

With the arrival of my bottle of Falernum, (Falerno del Massico by
Villa Matilde ¤25) the plates were cleared to await the gustatio.
Other wines available include: Aglianico, Albano, Mamertino and Setino,
amongst others with a tie to the period.

After this the gustatio.  I chose MELONES (melon cubes dressed with
garum (see Note 1 below), laserpicium and black pepper) which was
absolutely delicious and my wife had PERNA EX MUSTEIS (fig flavoured
ham on must cakes) which was similarly wonderful.  We exchanged samples
and whilst I agreed that the PERNA was excellent, my wife hated the
taste of garum and black  pepper with the melon (but then again she has
seen me make garum and knows what goes into it!), so I would say that
MELONES is best suited to the adventurous of palate.

Next the fercula prima.  My wife chose the PISA ET PORRA (creamed pea
and leeks with garum, cumin and ligusticum) which was creamy, sweet and
delicious.  I chose LAGANA (layered vegetable and ricotta 'patina'
topped with a thin layer of tracta.)  This was also delicious, the
flavours of the vegetables, all cooked and flavoured individually
before adding to the dish for final cooking were subtle and varied in
taste and texture.  The Magister Cenae tells me that they make Apician
Patina in the winter but this vegetable one in the summer.

Stomachs already groaning under the strain of three courses we came
next to the fercula seconda in our case, carnis (meat) though the also
do piscis (fish).  Here my wife opted for the HAEDUS PARTICUS (Parthian
roast Kid with prune sauce).  Beautifully cooked, this was the tastiest
and mildest flavoured kid (not at all gamey) we had ever tasted.  The
decision to leave the sauce 'on the side' is an excellent one as you
don't want to over dress it or to loose the crispiness of the flesh by
coating it with sauce after cooking.  I opted for ANATEM EX RAPIIS
(wild duck with beetroot, leeks, cumin, vinegar and laser).  Cooked
three times, this dish was both very tasty, sweet yet sour and very
heavy indeed.

Perhaps I could have done it more justice if I had not already been
groaning under the weight of the courses that had gone before, but this
was my least favourite of the dishes and the only one I personally
would not order again.  This is a shame as I love duck, but the meat
was cut too small and cooked too long so that the taste of the meat was
lost in the rich sauce.

Both dishes were served with CAROTAE FRICTAE (carrots fried in
oenogarum) and BETAE ELIXAE (chard with mustard sauce).

Lastly, again under the impression that it was an obligatory course, we
gave in to the SECUNDA MENSA or dessert course.  I am not much of a
sweet tooth but in the interest of science... ;)

We were served two small desserts on the same plate (we weren't given a
choice, but their choice was excellent).  TYROPATINAM (rather
charmingly and confusingly translated as 'Conscript Cake'. I say
confusingly as it isn't a cake at all but an egg and milk pudding with
garum topped with thick honey and black pepper) and PATINA DE PIRIS (a
pear, cumin, passum and garum cake).

Both were very good, the TYROPATINAM was rather like a creme bruleé and
the PATINA was firm fragrant and spicy making it a pleasant contrast to
the milk pudding.

We rounded off our meal with a small cup of rosatum (rose petal
flavoured white wine) offered by our kind host.

How would I rate the restaurant?

Well, as an experience for those curious about ancient cuisine or just
food in general, it's a MUST.  The attention to detail and genuine
dedication to putting as near as you can get real Apician cuisine on
your plate is enormous.

The Magister Cenae painstakingly explained to me how they buy their
celery from one small holding south of Rome where the pungent varietal
of small Neapolitan celery used in ancient times, is still grown.  How
they make their own garum sociorum from the recipe by Gargulius
Martialis; 30kg of fresh mackerel, 115 kg of sea salt, 750g of herbs
and filter the resulting sauce through two layers of muslin which takes
three days and produces about 7 litres of salty, fresh almost odourless
but strong flavoured sauce. See note 1 below.

The tiny bottle of powdered laser he carries around for diners to smell
as he explains the extinction and rediscovery of laser/asofetida.

But most of all for the fact that his desire and that of the Magirus is
to turn a professional cook's reference manual, the de re coquinaria
into useable recipes with precise contents.

They explained that when they first opened the restaurant and tried the
recipes they found that they had the problem many of you who cook Roman
food will recognise.  If you guess (as you must with apicius) and add a
pinch of this and a dash of that etc, almost every dish ends up tasting
the same.    All food has this characteristic 'Roman' flavour that
masks the other characteristics of the dish and the natural flavours of
the primary ingredients.

With time and a lot of practice they say that they were able to find a
balance that allowed the dishes to mature into individuals with subtle
balances and differing tastes.  They weigh all ingredients on a small
scale, cook from strictly followed recipes cards (which the cad
declined to let me have ...) and he illustrated the point by saying
that in one of their recipe cards they now listed half a grain of
pepper as an ingredient, one was too much, and a quarter too little.
That's dedication for you.

The restaurant currently has 75 of its target 225 dishes to it's
satisfaction and is working all the time to perfect the others.  The
magister informed me that any recipe that could not be reproduced due
to the lack of a single ingredient, or spice they would not attempt to
make for they were not in the 'Ancient Roman inspired food' business.

Would I go there regularly?

No, it's not that sort of restaurant, for whilst the food is very good
and decor excellent, the atmosphere is not relaxed enough.  I will
certainly go back again, but probably to take a friend interested in
trying this unique experience.

As I mentioned before, the magirus or magister like to talk constantly
with guests about the food and the ingredients, the writings of Pliny
etc, this is informative and interesting (especially as being
interested in the subject I asked more than few questions myself), but
ultimately it means that I cannot imagine eating a quiet meal there
with my wife with the constant interruptions.  As a restaurateur, it
strikes me that this restaurant is too much an experiment of curiosity
and too little a place to eat for it to ever develop the relaxed
ambiance that your 'regular' must have.

In conclusion, its well worth a visit, if you're coming to Rome add it
to your schedule.  The food is very good, well thought out, prepared
and presented, as is the restaurant.  However, the food is also very
rich and not easy on modern stomachs (well mine and my wife's at least)
and some diners may not appreciate the educational element of the visit.

But one final word of advice, if you do go for the full five courses
make sure you have time for a good hour walk afterwards, you'll need it.

Note 1 (Garum)
As I have said above the restaurant make their own garum.  I asked the
magister cenae why they did not consider using nuoc nam (Asian fish
sauce) instead as it was readily available and used by a large number
of Roman food enthusiasts (though not this one, who only uses it in his
Thai cuisine, ed).  The Magister replied that garum was their first
experiment and the keystone of the whole project.  Had they found that
garum produced according to ancient recipes was as foul smelling and
rank as nuoc nam or as some texts appear to describe it (though it is
believed that the Latin words for putrification and maceration were the
same, ed) then they believed the whole enterprise would have foundered.
   By following the recipe of Gargilius Martialis utilizing only fresh
mackerels, salt and herbs they managed to produce a garum that is both
fresh smelling, salty, delicate and nothing whatsoever like asian fish
sauce, with whom it shares only its appearance.  The having made the
sauce is much smaller quantities myself in the past I was pleased to
note that they had come to the same result as myself of a relatively
small quantity of garum and a large quantity of allec (for which they
currently can find no use as there are no texts that call specifically
for allec as an ingredient.)

Note 2 (Branded Items)
The restaurant sells its crockery and cutlery and plans to make sauces
and spices (including garum) available to order as well.


www.magnaroma.com


"He lives doubly who also enjoys the past."

Martial
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