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Houses of the well-to-do Romans consisted of a separate space for the peparation of meals, the culina. Archeological data and litterary clues give us an idea about the primitive circumstances under which Apician gatronomy was born. An elevation of bricks, on which a log fire burned, along with a small oven, was usually all there was. A grid-iron and a couple ofelevated metal rings enabled the cook to keep his earthenware pots or bronze vessels on the fire. Water running from a faucet or a food processor were beyond imagination. Except for those few pots and pans the mortar was the most important tool of the cook's trade.
Poorer Romans diddn't have a kitchen at all, maybe just a small stove with a single cooking pot. The many fires that ran havock in Rome from time to time, indicate that cooking or heating in the appartement buildings -insulae- of the poor was extremely full of risks.