Spaghetti: A Brief History

Spaghetti……who hasn’t eaten it?  Maybe there are some tribes in a remote part of the world but chances are the majority of humans have feasted on a spaghetti meal at one time or another.  But how much do we know about this “taken-for-granted” meal?  Well we at Chef Point Café, your favorite local restaurant, thought we would give you a brief history of spaghetti.

The history of spaghetti is a bit murky and quite a few nations have taken credit for it.  The Chinese have been making a variation of spaghetti since 3000 B.C., probably the longest claim with regards to the use of pasta.  Ancient Greece mentions it in mythology as the god Vulcan invented a device that made long strings of dough.

Rumor has it that Marco Polo brought pasta back to Europe after his trek to Asia in the late 13^th Century, but chances are it was already in Italy before that in the shape of a long noodle made from rice flour or hard wheat flour.

And what of the tomato sauce?  In 1519 the explorer Cortez brought the first tomato to Europe from the New World, but they were considered a decorative plant at that time and not eaten.  Not until the 18^th Century was the tomato actually considered a good food source and popular food item.

And lest we forget about the United States, we can give Thomas Jefferson credit when, as ambassador to France, he tasted spaghetti and brought a pasta-making machine back to the United States with him; it was the first macaroni machine in America.

So spaghetti has evolved over the years; every family makes it using their own recipe passed down through the generations and yes, we at Chef Point Café serve it as well.  It can be found on our kids menu with either meat sauce or red sauce and, since it was made by our own renowned Chef Franson, it is a taste treat for sure.

The next time you come by our Ft. Worth restaurant, bring the kids and see if you can’t coax one of them into ordering the spaghetti.  Of course you want them to have this delicious meal, but the other reason for doing this is so you can sneak a taste of their spaghetti when they aren’t looking.  After all, the Chef Point Café is known as THE Ft. Worth fine dining restaurant and you may as well taste as many menu items as possible.  If it was good enough for Thomas Jefferson then it should be good enough for you.