Martino da Como: Biography and Background

Martino da Como, or Martino de Rossi and Martino de Rubeis, called Maestro Martino from Como, born in the Blenio Valley (in the Italian speaking part of today's Switzerland), was a 15th-century culinary expert who was unequalled in his field at the time and could be considered the Western world's first celebrity chef. He made his career in Italy and was the chef at the Roman palazzo of the papal chamberlain ("camerlengo"), the Patriarch of Aquileia. Martino was applauded by his peers, earning him the epitaph of the prince of cooks. His book Libro de Arte Coquinaria (The Art of Cooking) (c. 1465) is considered a landmark in Italian gastronomic literature and a historical record of the transition from medieval to Renaissance cuisine.

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