It is well known that Queen Elizabeth hates eating garlic and most of the royal family food preparations include the minimum of spices. This happens as well with most of the European food, contrary to Indian, Asian, or even Mexican food where spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, peppers, or ginger are the key. But, why is that?
Well, it turns out that the limited usage of spices in European food, and especially the one prepared for the Royal family is way more snobby than you imagined.
Spices were once a status symbol
Cardamom, cinnamon, pepper, or saffron can be considered as the starters of world trade, and the responsible of tracing new sea routes. The trade of spices during the Medieval Era was key not only to the development of the economy but as a way of conquering new territories.
The trade of spices became so important that, during that period of time, only the really wealthy could afford to season their stews with cloves, ginger, or cinnamon, according to Tulasi Srinivas, an anthropologist at Emerson University.
Therefore, until the mid-1600s, European cuisine was all about complex and contrasting flavors. Much like Indian or Chinese food, the main regions from which the spices were brought in.
Many even used the spices to aromatize houses, as medicinal remedies or ceremonies.
Why did they stop being used in Europe?
The reason why spices stopped being used has to do with economics, politics, and even religion rather than the taste itself. Because let’s face it. Who would prefer a simple steamed chicken breast over a delicious tikka masala?
The colonization of regions like India or the Americas brought so many changes to European society, being one of the high costs of spices. But as more and more began to arrive at the “Old continent”, they started to become common and affordable.
According to Krishnendy Ray, a professor of food studies at New York University, this made the upper classes start moving from a contrast cooking style to a more complimentary one, explained to NPR.
“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”, Ray said.
If that wasn’t enough, Protestantism claimed that digestion was a matter of fermenting food, changing seasoned food to fresh vegetables, herbs, and greens that are rapidly assimilated, explained Rachel Laudan, a food historian and visiting professor at the University of Texas, Austin to NPR.
In other words, spices became an ingredient used by everybody and royalty could not appear to be commoners, therefore they stopped using them in their food. This became a constant to the point that to this day, the British royal family does not eat spicy food but now for other reasons, being them avoiding irritation or the personal dislike of the Queen to certain ingredients like garlic, however, this has a historical background that forbids them to taste a delicious curry even though it has been declared the national dish of England.