How Well Do You Know Your Kitchen?

The History in Our Kitchens - The Table
Original author: Ana Caldeira
Original post translated from Portuguese with some alterations: https://revista.sociedadedamesa.com.br/2015/12/na-cozinha-tem-historia-mesa/

The table, derived from the Latintabula (meaning board), aside from being the standard workstation in the kitchen, is also the meeting center, where most meals are held.

Since the third millennium BC, meals have been eaten at tables. In Mesopotamia, dinners were served on tables of all manners: smooth and plain, with detailed carved wood, or even with inlaid metal or ivory.

Arabic customs also have been shown to embrace formal table service. Ancient Muslim dinners were to be served at the table, as protection against gluttony, as squatting for meals began to show evidence for overeating.

In ancient Egypt, the tables were generally low and with four legs, although there were some with only three legs. Typically they were round, and made of wood or stone.
Curiously, they were not commonly used by the living, but many were placed in tombs, as offering tables!

The custom of guests at the dinner table reflects the social hierarchy that prevailed in each time period. In the classical era, dinners represented the strong link between sovereigns and their subjects.

In Greek tradition, hosts would set up individual tables in front of each guest, at which they were served their own meal. 
The style seems to have changed in the days of Alexander the Great. After his campaigns in the Middle East, North Africa and India, evidence shows that dinners encouraged the sharing of food and drink and the reciprocity of invitations.

The Roman triclinium - a dining room composed of three sofas, or chaises - was focused on banquets: slaves would set up tables and sofas in the shape of a "U".
For the Romans, eating and drinking together was one of their most significant social rituals, closely reflecting and influencing the fabric of public and domestic life.
The Roman dining area served as a model for most countries in Continental Europe and the British Isles in the Middle Ages.

In Anglo-Saxon England, lords occupied the only available chair. Their banquet table was a folding board, positioned on trestles, and presented the best of someone's hospitality. The guests sat around, on cushions.
Margaret Visser, in the book “The Rituals of Dinner”, describes the medieval banquet table: "Special guests and the host of the banquet sat at the raised 'high table', upon which stood a huge silver salt cellar, marking the place of the host or of an outstandingly important guest”.

In seeming contrast, in the 17th and 18th centuries, the author says, European aristocrats did not want to emphasize the difference in hierarchical places. “Tables were often quite small and, significantly, round,” explains Visser. Although showing some open-mindedness within the upper echelon of society, it must be noted that in these cases, the previously designated 'lower table' or unworthy guests were simply uninvited.

Also at medieval banquets, in noble houses, employees used to taste the foods (which could, for example, be poisoned) on side tables near the host's high table, called "credence tables". Interestingly, this taste-testing table is the ancestor of the credenzas and sideboards that we know today!
In medieval kitchens, the table also served as a service unit for working dough, cleaning fish or preparing meat. Central drawers held kitchen utensils.

From the 16th century, the four-legged table replaced the trestle design. Servants often placed them next to the fireplace to keep food warm.

During the Renaissance, change came again to dining habits when tables with folding legs appeared. The guests started to sit on both sides of the table, seated on benches or chairs with armrests.

In the middle of the 18th century, European tables gained mahogany side flaps, a versatile feature that allowed the joining of two or more tables for banquets.

In the United States, in the 20th century, service tables in kitchens began providing space for cabinets.
From 1890 on, these tables became large and stand-alone, with a cupboard to store groceries, integrated racks and a small counter to prepare food, in addition to a drawer, giving rise to designs similar to kitchen islands that have gained popularity in recent decades.

Laminate tables would only appear in the 1950s, and for Americans, the modern kitchen became more glamorous.
The combination of the easy cleaning of the plastic covering and the chrome tubular legs would be hugely successful and dominate the market, with marketing aimed at young families.

Plastic offered the same bright colors as metal, crockery and kitchen accessories, and allowed designers to introduce what, at the time, was considered something elegant and casual in the informal settings of the kitchen and pantry. 
At the same time, the culinary islands, placed in the center of the kitchens, would also slowly secure their place in the United States.

From the middle of the 20th century, according to the book “America's Kitchen”, in addition to a service station in the kitchen, the island started to serve as a table, welcoming guests. Personally I experienced this trend in my parents house where I grew up, and the island has become an ideal for many generations of home owners.

Understanding our history and how we arrived at our current conventions, I believe it empowers us to value our decisions more for the future. What we want to pursue, embrace, and uplift whether it be a nostalgic nod of respect to historical designs, or bravely innovating and integrating new ideas.
Nowadays we can find tables of every imaginable size, material, color and model. But in all of them we continue to celebrate the abundance of what the kitchen offers, and the gathering of those we love.