An illustrated atlasRataterra — The Illustrated Atlas of Food & Wine
Explore the ingredients, landscapes, traditions and extraordinary stories behind what we eat and drink.
1057 researched pages · 82 countries · 2171 registered sources · 2240 illustrations
A changing selection from the illustrated collections. Open any portrait for its story.
VegetablesMammoth Red Rock cabbageBrassica oleracea
FruitWild Himalayan mangoMangifera sylvatica
MushroomsBay boleteImleria badia
FishNarrow-barred Spanish mackerelScomberomorus commerson
SeafoodCrystal crabChaceon albus
HerbsVietnamese corianderPersicaria odorata
SpicesSumac berryRhus coriaria
NutsBrazil nut in shellBertholletia excelsa
Legumes & pulsesPinto beanPhaseolus vulgaris Pinto
Cereals & grainsSpelt wheat earTriticum spelta
Tea & infusionsShou Mei white teaCamellia sinensis
CoffeeParainema green coffee beanCoffea arabica cultivar ParainemaRecipes tied to the regions and ingredients of the atlas.
Living tradition
In Georgia wine is still fermented in large egg-shaped clay jars buried in the ground, a practice UNESCO listed as intangible heritage in 2013. Residues in Neolithic pottery show that people in the same country were making grape wine around 6000 BC, though nobody yet knows whether those first jars were buried.
Ingredient journey
Domesticated by Andean farmers thousands of years ago, the potato crossed the Atlantic in the sixteenth century, was met with suspicion, and ended up changing how Europe ate, farmed and suffered.
Myths & evidence
No. Dried pasta was being made and exported from Sicily more than a century before Marco Polo came home from China in 1295. How the myth began says more about twentieth-century marketing than about medieval trade.
