Over the centuries, the classic quality and type of food, quantities consumed and the methods of preparing them, symbolically competed to identify the social class, but above all " quality of the person. " Expression used in ancient medical texts, but to indicate the character of the individual consumer and its objective needs for food, in turn influenced by the environment, climate, season, from work carried out not only by sex, age and the physical constitution. In the Middle Ages instead the notion of "quality of person "changed nature, coming to designate no more than the physiological identity of the individual, but his social belonging. In a society in which the tripartite role of each class was defined by the divine will, nobility and political leadership was seen as the protector of the clergy and peasants. This power was the need to be celebrated at the table. The aristocracy of the rural labor use to mark their superiority in the food, eating more and having the ability to consume more nutritious products such as meat first choice and better quality grain.
To reconstruct the behavior of the powerful at the table is useful to examine the books, which lists in detail the expenditure incurred by the heads of the administration during the stay in the castle of a member of the royal family or the aristocracy. kings and queens ate white bread and drank wine every day, even during Lent. At that time, a rule drafted by members of the medical school of Salerno for the King of England does not recommend drinking pure water because it causes intestinal problems and was blocking the digestion, but recommended the wine, especially white and sweet. The nobles showed a preference for rich dishes, meat, which gave up only on days of penance. The inventories of expenditure reveal a preference for white meat, followed by sheep and pig, but a lot of interest was reserved for the game considered rare commodity. These well-seasoned meat with spices were combined in different ways to be abundant and diverse menu. After meat, bread and wine , aristocratic essential in the diet, are eggs and cheese, foods often combined with meat in everyday life but intermingled with the fish in the days of penance. vegetables, legumes and fruits occupied a position of secondary importance, both because they were considered peasant food and medical theories and because of the time wanted that for the bellies of fine noble nature of these plant foods were difficult to digest. In a society driven by soldiers, or their descendants, who had the physical strength of the myth, the table was one of the land on which to show his superiority. The rest of the collective imagination of the time, the food plentiful and the amount of meat consumed, became true symbols of power.
