Part 4/9:
A Historical Perspective on Cooking
To understand the origins of recipes, it helps to look back at how cooking evolved through necessity. Historically, recipes were born out of the need to feed oneself with whatever was available, rather than the desire to create the perfect dish. For example, dishes like Carbonara were developed during food shortages, driven by the necessities of wartime conditions, emphasizing how ingredients dictated cooking styles.
Famous dishes today often have roots in times of adversity—like the Oklahoma onion burger during the Depression or Neapolitan pizza, which utilized ingredients that the wealthy deemed unworthy. In these cases, cooking was less about aesthetics and more about sustenance created with available resources.