Across many of the world’s culinary traditions, starting a meal with small portions of salad, pickled vegetables, cold cuts or various bite-sized savouries has been customary for centuries. Ancient Romans perceived the ‘appetiser’ course as crucial to stimulating the appetite, and thus preceded their at-times notoriously decadent meals with light pastries, or vegetables accompanied by spicy sauces. Pre-meal drinks that today we know as aperitif or aperitivo, also meant to stir the appetite, figured in this eating ritual as well. Cicero himself is said to have called the rite promulsis, from the name of a common Roman drink served at the start of a meal, the honey wine mulsum.
The custom fell out of favour in the Middle Ages, to be revived during the Renaissance when some of Italy’s early ‘celebrity’ chefs, figures such as Bartolomeo Scappi, were elaborating on medieval taste preferences and incorporating modern techniques and ingredients newly-introduced to Europe into contemporary cooking. This era saw the revival of serving platters of what today we might call ‘finger foods’ on a credenza, a sideboard separate from the dining table. This course subsequently evolved into the hors d'oeuvre.