About National Dessert Month

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National Dessert Month celebrates dessert.

The concept of dessert as part of a meal originated in Andalusia, Córdoba (Spain) on the Iberian Peninsula, circa 840-852 AD. Dessert was the brainchild of what you might call the first rock star-fashionista-inventor-culinary artist of the Common Era, Abu al-Hasan Ali Ibn Nafi, or as he was more commonly known, Ziryab, meaning "Blackbird" or "Jaybird" in Persian.

Ziryab was born in 789 AD in what is today Iraq. He is one of the more interesting characters in history, rising from slavery to the top of the royal court during his life. Thanks to him, we have music schools, toothpaste, deodorant, clothes for different seasons, asparagus, and a three-course meal; those are his most notable contributions.

THE THREE-COURSE MEAL

Before Ziryab, dining didn't have much of a protocol. Instead, the food arrived on the table in a pile, and people grabbed whatever they wanted with their hands. Ziryab worked for the royal family in Córdoba. As part of his duties, he sought ways to make events memorable. "Why did dinner have to be dull?" he thought.

Ziryab invented presentation, dressing up the table with fine linens, crystal glasses, and different size spoons. He also reorganized how food arrived on the table, changing it to a procession rather than presenting all dishes simultaneously. At the time, this was revolutionary.

A man of many talents, Ziryab figured out that if you started with a soup (to prep the stomach and get digestion going), then moved on to the main dish of meat, veggies, and starches, the entire meal became an event when topped off with something sweet.

Andalusia's royal court and aristocracy loved this new idea of three courses and making a meal a celebration. The custom of three courses and table dressing soon spread throughout the kingdom, upper classes, and the rest of Europe and the world.

That sweet topping off the meal became known as dessert about 900 years later when the French donated the word "desservir" or "clear the table" to denote the last item served.

Of course, today's dessert can be a sweet treat, a cup of coffee, tea, or liquor. Today, we tend to eat dessert whenever we want. Still, technically, it's only dessert if it comes at the end of a meal.

Today, dessert is what we celebrate and serve. And, thanks to Ziryab, we can!

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WHY HAVE YOU NEVER HEARD OF ZIRYAB? BLAME TOLEDO.

Why don't you know about Ziryab? That's a little complicated, but I'll try to explain.

Ziryab lived during what Eastern scholars call the "Golden Age of Islam," roughly the seventh century through the early 11th century AD.

At the time, the Roman Catholic Church viewed the education of the masses as a threat; only the aristocracy's men and the clergy should be literate and educated. Muslims viewed it as a blessing and duty of faith for everyone, including women. Education for all is in the Qur'an.

The Golden Age is marked by tremendous scholarship and invention and ended as Christian forces retook the Iberian Peninsula from Islamic forces beginning at the end of the 11th century. It was not a quick conquest, requiring 450 years to complete, and included the period called the Renaissance (the 1300s-1500s) in European history. In 1609, the Muslims were expelled from what is now Spain, completing the era.

As part of this reconquest, in 1499, the Archbishop of Toledo ordered all Arabic manuscripts (except those of medicinal value) to be burned in the public square of Granada. Over a million original records and books were destroyed, with them the writings of historians, scientists, educators, and philosophers worldwide. It was a vast loss of knowledge and learning.

Part of the reconquest of Europe included rejecting ideas, inventions, and processes created by persons or institutions of the Islamic and, at times, Jewish faiths. The focus instead turned to Greek and Roman scholarship.

Today, if you grow up in Western countries, your world history education likely includes intense Greek and Roman history studies, some Egyptian, and many European, but very little on the Ottoman Empire, China, or Greater Asia. Because of this, Western-educated people do not know about people like Ziryab, who impacted so much of how we live today. Holy Toledo! The effects of Toledo's censorship continue today, though that is slowly changing one curious person at a time.