New Crops and New Cuisines

Swiss chocolate, Irish potatoes, and Italian pizza all owe a debt to Inca and Aztec farmers. Chocolate, potatoes, and tomatoes were just three of the new products to arrive in Europe. Often, the new flavors, fruits, and vegetables took time to catch on, although from the outset Columbus and his men were enthusiastic about pineapples and sweet potatoes.​—See box, page 9.

Some crops from the East, such as cotton and sugarcane, came into their own in the New World, while the South American potato eventually became a major source of nourishment for many European households. This interchange of crops didn’t just give more variety to international cuisine; it brought a fundamental improvement in nutrition, which contributed to the enormous growth of the world population in the 19th and 20th centuries.

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Plants That Changed the World’s Menus

THE discovery of America revolutionized the world’s eating habits. There was a rapid interchange of crops between the Old World and the New World, and many plants cultivated by the Incas and the Aztecs are now among the most important food crops of the world.

The Potato. When the Spanish arrived in Peru, the potato was the basis of the Inca economy. The potato also thrived in the Northern Hemisphere, and within two centuries it had become the staple food of many European countries. Some historians even attribute to this humble but nutritious tuber the rapid population increase that accompanied the European industrial revolution.

The Sweet Potato. Columbus encountered sweet potatoes on his first voyage. He described them as somewhat like “great carrots” with the “flavor proper to chestnuts.” Now, the sweet potato is a staple food of millions of people throughout a large portion of the earth.

Corn, or Maize. So important was the cultivation of corn to the Aztecs that they viewed it as a symbol of life. Now corn is second only to wheat in world acreage planted.

The Tomato. Both Aztecs and Maya cultivated the xitomatle (later called tomatl). By the 16th century, the tomato was grown in Spain and Italy, where gazpacho, pasta, and pizza became cuisine favorites. Other Europeans, however, were not won over to its virtues till the 19th century.

Chocolate. Chocolate was the favorite drink of Aztec ruler Montezuma II. At the time Cortés arrived in Mexico, the cocoa beans, from which chocolate was extracted, were so highly esteemed that they were used as money. In the 19th century, when sugar and milk were added to improve the flavor, chocolate became an international best-​seller, both as a drink and as a snack in solid form.