The Wizard’s Table Codex
Food Is Weird: Bite-Sized History
— Entry 004 —
False Origins of Foods, Vol. I
The West Did Not Invent It.
Ketchup is not Western.
False Origin: “Ketchup was invented in America.”
Truth: The earliest version was Chinese ke-tsiap, a fermented fish sauce from the 3rd century.
British sailors brought the idea back and created mushroom, walnut, and eventually tomato-based versions.
The tomato version didn’t even appear until the early 1800s.
Pasta did not come from Italy via Marco Polo.
False Origin: “The Italians invented pasta after Marco Polo brought noodles from China.”
Truth: There were written references to pasta in Sicily in the 1100s, nearly a century before
Marco Polo was born.
Plus, the Arabs brought noodle-making technology to Europe through North Africa and Sicily.
Marco Polo?
Just a tourist with good PR.
Potatoes, tomatoes, and chilis are not European.
False Origin: “French fries are French. Tomato sauce is Italian. Chilis are Indian.”
Truth: All of these originated in the Andes and Mesoamerica.
Potatoes: domesticated by the Inca
Tomatoes: first cultivated in southern Mexico
Chilis: from Central and South America
Europe had none of them before Columbus’ invasion of the Americas.
Chocolate was sacred long before it was sweet.
False Origin: “Europe invented chocolate.”
Truth: The Olmec, Maya, and Aztec civilizations used cacao for rituals, medicine, and currency.
It was a bitter, spiced drink, often with chili or maize.
Europeans added sugar centuries later and commercialized it.
(The word “chocolate” itself comes from the Nahuatl word xocolatl.)
“Curry powder” is a colonial invention.
False Origin: “Indian food uses curry powder.”
Truth: There is no such thing as a traditional Indian dish that calls for “curry powder.”
The British created it as a spice shortcut during colonization to replicate Indian flavors back home.
Real Indian cooking uses specific masalas—freshly ground and unique to each region, even each household.
Ice cream has global roots.
False Origin: “Ice cream is a Western luxury.”
Truth: Ancient Persians made early frozen desserts using snow and grape syrup over 2,000 years ago.
The Chinese also had frozen milk desserts as early as 200 BCE.
Arabs added milk and sugar, and brought those innovations into Southern Europe through Spain.
The French just refined it into what we recognize now.
Bagels are not brunch food—they’re survival food.
False Origin: “Bagels are a New York thing.”
Truth: Bagels were created by Eastern European Jews, likely in Poland in the 1600s.
They were affordable, portable, and boiled before baking for a crisp exterior and soft core.
New York made them popular, but they were born in diaspora—made to endure displacement and keep culture alive.
The British didn’t invent chutney.
False Origin: “Chutney is a sweet British condiment.”
Truth: Chutneys are ancient Indian preparations—spicy, sour, herbaceous, fermented, or fresh.
The British sweetened them, preserved them with vinegar and sugar, and exported them in glass jars.
But the original? Think stone-ground mint, raw mango, tamarind, coconut—made daily, eaten fresh, and never meant to sit on a pantry shelf.
White bread was once a status symbol.
False Origin: “Whole grain is healthier, so white bread must have been cheap peasant food.”
Truth: For centuries, only the rich could afford refined white flour—it took more labor and sieving.
Brown bread was for the working class.
Only in the modern wellness era has the script flipped.
Industrialization made white bread cheap, and brown bread was rebranded as “artisanal.”
Food for Thought
Our taste remembers what history forgets.
Entry 004