Since 1992
Print and digital marketing
By Barbara McAllister
Word of the Day: Credenza
A credenza is a piece of furniture usually found in a dining room. It’s also called a sideboard, although a credenza tends to be smaller and more formal looking than a traditional sideboard. Sideboard is the English equivalent, and both serve the same purpose — to store dining room dishes and provide a surface to serve food or display the good serving pieces. A sideboard reflects English sensibilities and typically sits higher on short legs, but both pieces are long, low cabinets used for storage. While similar in function, credenza not only sounds more elegant than sideboard, it has connections to princes, popes and poison.
Credenza is Italian for “belief or trust,” similar to our English words credence and credibility. All stem from the Latin “credare,” to believe. In 16th century Italy, the act of credenza was the job of food tasters to ensure the food was not poisoned before nobles digging in. Food tasters were historically used by the elite and anyone rich enough to afford one. Vulnerable Egyptian rulers and Roman emperors were often targeted, but in Renaissance Italy the Borgias and the Medicis escalated the game. They used poison against their enemies so much that to “taste the cup of the Borgias” became slang for a quick death. In Renaissance Italy, once food tasters ensured the food passed the credence test, they placed it on the credence table to be guarded. The credence table became known as a credenza.
Food tasters aren’t just part of ancient history. Adolf Hitler had a team of young women as food tasters and Stalin had a trusted taster who worked with his chef. Vladimir Putin is said to employ a food taster and, although not generally acknowledged, every U.S. president since Ronald Reagan has had one. In the U.S. they are staff members of the Secret Service and called food security screeners, sensory evaluators or Navy mess specialists, but their role is basically the same as the food tasters of old. Food for thought.
