The food of the elite

From the NPR article How Snobbery Helped Take The Spice Out Of European Cooking:

Back in the Middle Ages, spices were really expensive, which meant that only the upper class could afford them. But things started to change as Europeans began colonizing parts of India and the Americas.

“Spices begin to pour into Europe,” explains Krishnendu Ray, an associate professor of food studies at New York University. “What used to be expensive and exclusive became common.”

... Serving richly spiced stews was no longer a status symbol for Europe’s wealthiest families — even the middle classes could afford to spice up their grub. “So the elite recoiled from the increasing popularity of spices,” Ray says. “They moved on to an aesthetic theory of taste. Rather than infusing food with spice, they said things should taste like themselves. Meat should taste like meat, and anything you add only serves to intensify the existing flavors.”

This reminds me a lot of recent trends of artisanal, local, organic, farm-to-table, and so on and so forth. That said, I think the adoption of a less-meat-intensive diet a good thing both to address animal welfare concerns and also sustainability issues - though not necessarily an idea I live up to particuarly well. That said, what I think a lot of the food world - e.g. Dan Barber - doesn't account for well are cost issues.