Editing Spanish cuisine (section)

=== Modern era ===
{{See also|Columbian exchange}}
[[File:Bodegón con pepinos y tomates-Meléndez.jpg|thumb|right|Still-life painting by [[Luis Egidio Meléndez]] (1774) featuring cucumbers and tomatoes]]
[[File:1908-10-17, Blanco y Negro, La cocina (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|The kitchen of the Asylum of San Bernardino in Madrid (c. 1908)]]
The arrival of Europeans in the [[Americas]] in 1492 initiated the advent of new culinary elements, such as [[tomato]]es, [[potato]]es, [[maize]], [[bell pepper]]s, spicy [[chili pepper|peppers]], [[paprika]], [[vanilla]] and [[cocoa bean|cocoa]]. Spain was where chocolate was first mixed with sugar to temper its natural bitterness. Other ingredients traveled to the Americas, such as rice, grapes, olives, and many types of cereals.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Food Culture in Spain (Food Culture around the World)|last = Medina|first = Xavier|publisher = Greenwood|year = 2005|isbn = 978-0313328190}}</ref>

Influenced by [[Arabic]] ''[[harisa]]'', grain-based soups such as ''[[:ca:farinetes|farinetes]]'' (along the Mediterranean coast) and, similarly, ''[[gachas]]'' (in the [[Meseta Central|Central Plateau]]) were customary in Early Modern Spain.<ref>{{Cite book|page=15|title=At the First Table. Food and Social Identity in Early Modern Spain|first=Jodi|last=Campbell|publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]]|location=Lincoln and London|year=2017|isbn=9780803296619}}</ref>

Foreign visitors noted with disdain the Spaniards' use of olive oil and [[lard]] for cooking rather than their preferred [[butter]]. The latter was barely available and, according to the 17th-century account of [[Madame d'Aulnoy]], on the rare occasions that it was, would come "from afar, preserved in pig's tripes and full of worms". Butter was only produced locally in places such as Galicia, Asturias and Soria, or was imported, preserved in [[potassium nitrate]], (the so-called "Flanders' butter").<ref name=mantecas>{{cite web|url=https://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/gastronomia/2019/05/02/anos-extranjeros-odiaban-cocina-espanola/00031556794334462869280.htm|website=[[La Voz de Galicia]]|title=¿Por qué hace años los extranjeros odiaban la cocina española?|date=30 May 2019|first=Ana|last=Vega de Arlucea}}</ref>

By the 18th century, many American ingredients, such as peppers and tomatoes, had been fully incorporated into Spanish cuisine. Contemporary foreign visitors, such as French ambassador [[Jean-François de Bourgoing]], judged negatively this change happening in Spain by the late part of the century: "Spanish cooking, which they have inherited, is not generally pleasing to foreigners. Spaniards like strong condiments such as pepper, tomato sauce, hot peppers and saffron, which color or infect nearly all their dishes."<ref>{{Cite book|page=33|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zGKpBQAAQBAJ&pg=PP1|title=Global Goods and the Spanish Empire, 1492-1824: Circulation, Resistance and Diversity|editor-first=Bethany|editor-last=Aram|editor-first2=Bartolomé|editor-last2=Yun-Casalilla|publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]]|doi=10.1057/9781137324054|year=2014|chapter=The Early Modern Food Revolution: A Perspective from the Iberian Atlantic|first=María de los Ángeles|last=Pérez Samper|isbn=978-1-349-45891-2}}</ref>

Spain was the bridge for the [[Columbian exchange]] between the rest of Europe and the New World.{{Sfn|Pérez Samper|2014|p=33}} Many traditional Spanish dishes such as ''[[Spanish omelette|tortilla de patata]]'' (an omelette made with potatoes), would not be possible without the Columbian exchange. ''[[Gazpacho]]'', ''[[salmorejo]]'', and ''[[pan con tomate]]'' are made with tomatoes, which traveled from the New World to the Old World.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

For most of the 19th century, the aristocracy consumed a set of dishes that was largely an imitation of French cuisine. That was the available cuisine at the time, together with the degeneration of regional cuisines.<ref name=revistadelibros /> One positive foreign take on the Spanish dishes—opposing the largely negative views of other foreign commentators—was that of [[Richard Ford (English writer)|Richard Ford]], who was fond of Spanish specialties such as [[sherry]] and [[Jamón serrano|ham]].<ref name=revistadelibros>{{Cite journal|journal=[[Revista de Libros]]|url=https://www.revistadelibros.com/articulos/evolucion-de-la-cocina-espanola-durante-los-siglos-xix-y-xx|title=De la fonda nueva a la nueva cocina. La evolución del gusto culinario en España durante los siglos XIX y XX|first1=Pilar|last1=Bueno|last2=Ortega|first2=Raimundo|date=1 August 1998}}</ref>

Modern Spanish cuisine was gestated in the late-19th to early-20th century, with gastronomes and writers such as [[Mariano Pardo de Figueroa]] (Dr. Thebussem), [[:es:José Castro y Serrano|José Castro y Serrano]], [[:es:Ángel Muro|Ángel Muro]], [[Emilia Pardo Bazán]], and [[Dionisio Pérez Gutiérrez|Dionisio Pérez]], some of whom put effort into developing the idea of a "national cuisine" recognisable by Spaniards as their own.<ref>{{Cite journal|journal=Culture & History Digital Journal|volume=6|issue=2|year=2017|issn=2253-797X|doi=10.3989/chdj.2017.019|title=The Gestation of Modern Gastronomy in Spain (1900-1936)|first1=Ainhoa|last1=Aguirregoitia-Martínez|first2=Mª Dolores|last2=Fernández-Poyatos|page=019|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321370968|doi-access=free|hdl=10045/71778|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

Keen on participating in the Spanish nation-building process, Dr. Thebussem, in an autochthonous example of [[culinary nationalism]], proposed to the King's Chef that the ''[[olla podrida]]'' (a rustic stew typically made of meat, legumes and other vegetables) should be served at official banquets as a national dish.<ref>{{Cite journal|journal=Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies|year=2013|volume=14|issue=4|pages=400–414|doi=10.1080/14636204.2013.916027|title=The unity and diversity of La olla podrida: an autochthonous model of Spanish culinary nationalism|first=Lara|last=Anderson|publisher=[[Routledge]]|s2cid=143940504}}</ref> This could be considered an important step in the process of straying away from the French cooking paradigm,{{Sfn|Anderson|2013|pp=402–403}} which was dominant in the 19th century in Europe. ''Olla podrida'' had been previously ridiculed in foreign (most notably French) satires.{{Sfn|Anderson|2013|p=404}}

Although the new foodscape built in opposition to the French centralist culinary model accounted for the awareness of the distinctive regional singularities, subsequent food writers in the country would continue to cope with the tension between the Spanish peripheral and centralist foodscapes.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter=Writing from and for the Periphery. Carving Out a Place for Spanish Food Studies|first=Lara|last=Anderson|title=Repensar los estudios ibéricos desde la periferia|volume=13|chapter-url=https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/bitstream/handle/11343/240961/Anderson_Writing%20from%20and%20for%20the%20periphery.pdf?sequence=5&isAllowed=y|issn=2610-8844|doi=10.30687/978-88-6969-302-1/006|year=2019|publisher=Edizioni Ca' Foscari|isbn=978-88-6969-302-1|s2cid=166399222 |page=104}}</ref>

The influential cooking book ''1080 recetas de cocina'' by [[Simone Ortega]] (first published in 1972) became a hit in Spain, remaining as of 2019 the third best-selling book ever in the history of the country after ''Don Quixote'' and the Bible.<ref name=elmundo /> This was not a book exclusively of Spanish traditional recipes, but also included French recipes, bringing an exotic penchant to Spanish homes.<ref name=elmundo>{{cite web|url=https://www.elmundo.es/papel/gastro/2019/05/31/5cef9e52fc6c838a168b4648.html|website=[[El Mundo (Spain)|El Mundo]]|title=Así consiguió Simone Ortega que sus '1080 recetas' se vendan tanto como el 'Quijote'|date=31 May 2019|first=Víctor de la|last=Serna}}</ref>

Televised [[cooking shows]] started in the country in 1984 with ''[[Con las manos en la masa]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=http://www.bne.es/es/Micrositios/Exposiciones/Cocina/documentos/cocina_estudios_5.pdf|pages=191–193|chapter=Libertad en los fogones. La cocina española y sus libros, de la transición a nuestros días|first1=Toni|last1=Massanés|first2=Jorge|last2=Guitiá|publisher=[[Biblioteca Nacional de España]]|title=La cocina en su tinta|year=2010|isbn=978-84-92462-15-5<!--pages=159–195-->}}</ref>