The Elegance of the cook. Between hygienic precepts and distinction: cleanliness in the kitchen in the Instrucción de fray Fernando de Talavera para el régimen interior de su palacio and the Libre del coch by Robert de Nola

Abstract

Was the cleanliness of kitchens –and of cooks– a subject of reflection for medieval authors, particularly Iberian ones? Culinary treatises hardly ever address the issue of hygiene. Reading the Libro de Buen Amor literally, one would even get the impression that houses, and especially kitchens, were only cleaned once a year. In order to try to understand the distinction expected of cooks in more detail, we have chosen only two contemporary texts, the Instrucción de fray Fernando de Talavera para el régimen interior de su palacio and the Livre du cuisinier by Robert de Nola, which are among the few to deal with the question of hygiene. They will allow us to question the new social weight of the cook of the princes, after having studied the literary evolution of the image of the cook, in relation to his social distinction.