THE SPICE - HISTORY & ORIGIN

When I started La Boîte, one of my first exercises was to read (or reread) the history of the spice trade and educate myself on how we got to where we are today. The stories most people take for granted influence my cooking every day; they transport me to another time and place and inform how I buy and blend spices—even how I name my blends. The way people used spices centuries ago, the factors that determine costs, and much of how they are grown and harvested haven’t really changed. So the history of spices, for me, is very much the present. It’s part of my daily life and every decision I make for my business. If you want to blend or use spices, you have to start at the beginning.

Spices have always been desired, particularly by those who could not easily access them. They were darlings of the wealthy, who threw lavish feasts to show off dishes seasoned with rare and expensive saffron, nutmeg, and cloves. To manage the growing demand, the spice trade and the Age of Discovery were born.

Following the early Asian, Indian, and Greco-Roman trades, Arabs caravanned desert landscapes to connect the Middle East and southern Asia as early as 900 BC. They held a monopoly on the trade route with fairy tales about cassia and cinnamon being guarded by dangerous creatures. To find alternate routes, lengthy, dangerous crusades set off by sea—the Romans sailed from Egypt to India in search of coveted pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger, and the Europeans sought exclusive trade routes to India, China, and the islands of Indonesia, including the Moluccas (Spice Islands).

Marco Polo’s exploration of Asia in the thirteenth century established Venice as a major port city, and later, Vasco da Gama’s journey around the Cape of Good Hope connected him with Calcutta, India, and its bounty of exotic flavors. Spain and Portugal were no longer going to pay full price for spices if they could get them directly. This was the same reason Christopher Columbus was sent out on his fabled voyage to the New World: he was meant to find a new route to China, India, and the spice islands of Asia, but instead landed on what would become the Americas. His voyage was fruitful nonetheless: he brought back chiles, allspice, and vanilla, which disseminated across Europe.

Simply by being along the route, ports developed into important trade centers. Convoys would stop off on their way to some other destination, sharing what they had collected with the locals before traveling to the New World, or wherever else. This influenced trade but also unintentionally blended food cultures and traditions; it is the reason ginger flavors Yemenite coffee and that saffron stains Italian risotto red.

Because the Portuguese, English, and Dutch wanted to control these foreign lands in order to trade the spices and crops growing there, they built European colonies to occupy spice-rich places all over the world. Wars were fought, laws were put into place, and drastic measures were taken to maintain strict monopolies on spices.

The Dutch even went to the extent of destroying any clove plant not owned by them and punishing anyone caught growing the plants or harvesting seeds. They limited export by dumping any excess into the sea—the very definition of supply and demand in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Dutch conquered the islands surrounding the Malay Peninsula and the city of Malacca and put exclusive trading rights in place for pepper along the Malabar Coast. They had taken over the spice trade in Asia, for a time.

With the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s and early 1800s, spices slowly began to lose their glory. The encroaching colonies disappeared and the areas where they formerly reigned gained independence. European, and in particular French, cuisines, which did not use many spices, became increasingly popular. Spices became easier to transport, culinary trends changed, and the mass production of foods required fewer spices for preservation. The cost of spices dropped, making them more accessible to everyone and less of a sign of wealth. Spices became reserved for Asian or Middle Eastern street foods and perceived as common and inexpensive. This would remain the case for a long time.

In the 1900s, with the introduction of cheaper mass-produced items, people began relying more on prepared, canned, and frozen foods. Consumers seeking efficiencies in the kitchen embraced modern stabilizers and preserving agents, as well as new inventions like the all-important freezer.

For years we rejected the traditional recipes of our grandmothers; we wanted to be different, sophisticated, and “modern.” In my opinion, this decision to eschew our past became the downfall of food quality and, thus, our overall health and well-being. Foods are now overly processed, and we are feeding steroids and hormones to the animals we eat. And because of this, we are seeing the most obese generation in our history with more preventable illnesses than we know what to do with. Mass production may have created efficiencies in the kitchen, but it certainly hasn’t made us happier.

In the last fifteen years or so, I’ve noticed a new generation of young chefs and food influencers finally embracing their heritage. We now understand that eating healthier means living better, and in order to do so we look back at our history to seek pure, clean ingredients. We scour food traditions to create a food culture that is full of flavor. And nothing creates more flavor than spices.

Fortunately, most spice-growing countries never stopped producing them, and farmers still use the same methods they have for thousands of years, continuing to cultivate what is essential to their cuisines. And while their methods haven’t changed, they have a better understanding of modern irrigation, which creates better crop yield and higher sanitation standards, which result in safer products for everyone. I regularly contact growers, traders, and local cooks to learn how they work and how best to use their spices. This is my commitment to our clients, so that I can be better at what I do and so that we all eat better.

Interest in spices is finally seeing resurgence—but a higher demand for spices can also mean shortages. In the same way that we learned how to cultivate better coffee, wine grapes, meat, and dairy products, people are now going back to the spice plantation to see how it can be improved. Where traditional agricultural methods can’t keep up, modern techniques can deliver—though even the most tech-savvy equipment can’t replace the traditional production of spices that simply can’t grow any other way (take vanilla , for example).

Just as in history, wars and conflicts also affect the ability for regions to grow and supply their spice crops. Look what is happening with Iranian saffron . There’s also the uncontrollable issue of weather. Back in 2004, Hurricane Ivan swept through Grenada, completely devastating the nutmeg supply.

What matters is that new chefs are creating more dishes that look deeper into the world of spices as a source of inspiration. Traveling has never been easier, and the Internet offers a world without boundaries where you can order an ounce of spice from any country and have it delivered to your doorstep.

Things are looking good for spices. The people coming into my shop are expressing a growing interest. They want to be better cooks, and they see spices as an easy way to make a big impact at the table. This ever-growing interest pushes us all to do a better job, and the result is tastier food and a better, healthier lifestyle for everyone. Our history is finally catching up with us, and it’s in the form of unassuming powders in simple jars.

Written by Lior Lev Sercarz in "The Spice Companion - A Guide to the World of Spices", Clarkson Potter Publishers, New York, USA, 2016.Digitized, adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.