The most important thing that the Renaissance left us was not Michelangelo’s ‘David’ or Botticelli’s ‘Spring’: it was ice cream

From the classic flavors to the most baroque derivatives such as “tripe flavored with oreo and kinder”. For many the king of sweets, the ice cream It has a history dating back to the Italian Renaissance.

It is true that the story of “ice with things” almost starts from the beginnings of civilization. The ancient Greeks, the Persians and the Chinese already mastered the art of cooling off using crushed ice mixed with fruits, honey or juice, a precursor to what we would currently consider a sorbet, which differs from ice cream in that it does not contain buttery ingredients.

Like all things that have been done since time immemorial, it is not very clear how the idea came to Italywhether from China through the Silk Road or through Sicily thanks to Arab influence.

From the distant antecedents to Italy

What we do know is that ice cream became popular in Europe thanks to Cosimo I de’ Medicione of the key figures of the 16th century (not to be confused with Cosimo de’ Medici simply, founder of the dynasty and popularly known as Cosimo the Elder because it was not a question of heating his helmets too much is the nickname).

Cosimo I took power in 1537becoming Grand Duke and boss of Florence at the age of 17. Cosimo decided to make his own that “the best mayor, the king” and, in addition to carrying out a successful economic and military policy, he completely renewed the Florentine administration (basically concentrating all the power in his hands) and promoted the flourishing of sciences and arts in the city (we owe him, for example, the construction of the Gallery Uffizi).

And Cosimo I would end up going down in history, above all, as a great patron who welcomed and financed painters, sculptors, architects, astronomers and a very long etc. One of them would be Bernardo Buontalentiinventor, architect, set designer, designer, engineer and all-rounder at the Florentine court. Apparently, some guests from the Spanish court showed up by surpriseso Cosimo commissioned Buontalenti (who designed a fortress that made you a dessert) something to surprise the Spaniards during the welcome banquet.

Buontalenti had already managed to preserve the snow which they brought from the mountains in underground chambers insulated with wood and cork, so a dessert was made by mixing snow with milk, eggs, lemon, orange, bergamot and sweetening it with honey or sugar (versions differ). Of course, that was a great success and at the Florentine court there began to be cakes to try the prodigious invention.

Today, the largest festival in Europe dedicated to ice cream It is celebrated every year in the city of Florence, where in addition to Buontalenti, they also honor Ruggeria chicken peddler who a few years before Buontalenti himself had won a cooking contest presenting a dessert made from snow and frozen fruit.

Italy, cradle of modern civilization.

Next stop, France

For some reason that no one in their right mind could explain, the Spanish did not have the good sense to take the recipe home and it is in France where the next chapter in the history of ice cream takes place.

Catherine de’ Medicirelative of Cosimo I (try to trace the relationship in the family treeif you can) married Henry II of Orleans in 1533, thus becoming queen of France in one of the most turbulent periods in its history. She was queen consort until the death of her husband, with whom she did not get along at all, and then queen regent when her son Francisco II was still very young, who also had very fragile health and who died shortly after due to otitis.

Thus, Catherine became regent for her second son, Charles IX, ruling for ten years until he finally took possession of the crown. However, Catherine would also survive Charles, thus becoming an advisor to Henry III, his third son and next king of France. Maybe Catherine remind you of someone.

Returning to the topic at hand, Catherine, in addition to being a political animal, was, like Cosimo I, a convinced humanist and a great patron of letters and the arts (sponsoring, for example, the construction of the Tuileries). Catherine promoted the arts in France but did not forget her Italian roots, so the influence of elements italians at the French court it was notable.

Thanks to Catherine, ballet was introduced to France and she was also partly responsible for the popularization of the commedia dell’artealthough it was not the first to present it in the French country.

In more prosaic considerations, he also decided that French cuisine was a disaster and filled the court with Italian cooks, bringing ingredients such as olive oil, artichokes, beans, anchovies, pasta and much more. Besides taught the French to use the forkry, of course, made ice cream fashionable. And he did it by nothing more and nothing less than taking Ruggeri, the chicken man turned cook, to the French court. Tremendous plot twist.

From the French court to heaven

During the decades and centuries that followed, the expansion of ice cream is unstoppable (how could it not be?). In 1686, Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli moved from Palermo to Paris and opened the Café Procope, considered the oldest in France and where coffee and ice cream were served and names of the stature of Rousseau, Voltaire, Diderot, Balzac, Victor Hugo, George Sand, Napoleon Bonaparte and even Oscar Wilde, who liked to go to France from time to time to do his things, gathered to have a cone. If you are interested, you can still go have a drink.

Throughout the 17th century, numerous gastronomy books were published that included the recipe for the famous Italian ice cream, and at the end of the 19th century, Italian immigrants introduced the recipe to New York (the Americans, in turn, would take a recipe thousands of years old and They would invent the Sundae). As for Spain, according to the Spanish Association of Ice Cream Manufacturersconsumption became popular in the 17th century, with the first horchaterías opening in the 19th century. Currently, you can visit throughout the geography ice cream parlors with more than 75 years old.

So the next time you go to have an ice cream, whether at a beach ice cream parlor or sitting on a terrace trying to escape the hellish heatthinks that humans may have caused climate change, but we have also invented a delicacy of the gods.

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