Do you know the guy in the photo?

Did you know that he was a great gourmand during the Renaissance?

In the Codex Atlanticus we find the drawings of some of da Vinci's inventions that are truly innovative. Including the ancestor of the pepper mill, egg slicer, garlic press, and corkscrew. Some documents show that he was researching a spaghetti machine and what looks like a food warmer.

In his masterpiece "The Last Supper",?Leonardo added an object that was completely original at the time and placed it next to each diner:?“the napkin”.

In 2018, I had the opportunity to personally use an old mechanical spit designed by Leonardo da Vinci for an event. It is a spit equipped with propellers which rotate due to the raising heat of the flames. It is located in the Medici Villa of Artimino, called?“La Ferdinanda”.

Leonardo loved to experiment in the kitchen. He was a fan of herbs and spices and even created the?“Aquarosa”recipe. In his writings, we also discover his favourite dishes and that e was practically a vegetarian.

For a short time, when he was young, records show that Leonardo and his friend Sandro Botticelli ran a restaurant in the centre of Florence, called?"The Three Frogs of Sandro and Leonardo".?Leonardo served experimental dishes that were aesthetically pleasing but not abundant in portion sizes. He is perhaps the ancestor of what the French later labelled as "Nouvelle Cuisine".

During his stay in Milan, Leonardo also wrote a list of suggestions on how to behave at the table. Leonardo was for almost thirty years Grand Master of banquet parties for Ludovico il Moro; in short, he was an event organiser, a chef, an inventor of kitchen utensils, etc.