A colorful, sweet and sour unique dish that takes us back to the beginnings; these Lucy tubers for Charles Darwin offer earthy and wild flavors, prompting thoughts about food and evolution.

On Darwin Day, AIFB launched a recipe contest, Charles (Darwin)’s Dishes, which I’m very pleased to participate in. This year, we discussed evolution in a broad sense, including the evolution of food on our plates… Charles’s plates, to be exact.

In the conversation between Leonardo Danieli, director of Villa Solatia, and Anna Maria Pellegrino on the evolution of mankind from a gastronomic perspective, the president of AIFB emphasizes that food is culture, not just cooking.

These words fully resonate with me; it’s essential to know and share what’s behind our food, whether it’s nutraceutical, history, tradition, evolution.

I reflect and conclude that if it were just about sharing a recipe and nothing else… then I wouldn’t have started the blog…

So, sit back, and I’ll tell you an interesting story!!

I’ll start from afar… I’ve never told you that I’ve always been a great enthusiast of paleoanthropology?

Yes, during my teenage years, I was very fascinated by australopithecines. I read everything about hominids, from the Australopithecus afarensis, Australopithecus africanus, Australopithecus boisei and naturally the hominid Lucy who was my favorite. Lucy is our great-great-great-grandmother from 3.2 million years ago. She was discovered by a great paleoanthropologist, Donald Johanson not far from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia on November 24, 1974.

On the evening of the discovery, they decided to name her Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) because they were listening to Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by the Beatles. What was so special about little Lucy? Even though the lower extremities were missing in the find, from the legs and pelvis it was clear that she walked like a modern woman, in an upright position. Despite her three-foot-six-inch height, she had long arms for climbing, strong teeth because she was practically vegetarian and fed on tubers, roots, seeds, and fruits, herbs, and leaves, the tender parts of plants, and crocodile eggs. Therefore, she had pronounced jaw muscles, which with the dietary changes we have undergone, have progressively diminished.

Anthropologist Peter Ungar conducted a study on the teeth of australopithecines that reveals interesting details about their diet. He says: “Lucy’s species (Australopithecus afarensis) is among the first hominids to show teeth with thickened and flattened enamel,” meaning she also ate hard or abrasive foods such as nuts, seeds, and tubers. In any case, Ungar’s analysis indicates that grasses and leaves dominated the menu.

Moreover, it was discovered a few years ago that already 3 million years ago, Australopithecus africanus possessed an opposable thumb, an important use of hands similar to humans, allowing them to grip objects firmly. They were hominids, no longer monkeys.

This is where Charles Darwin comes in; in 1859, in his essay “On the Origin of Species” after years of study, he demonstrated evolution. With natural selection, survival of the fittest meant adapting best to the environment, securing resources, not necessarily the strongest but rather those who reproduced more effectively. Darwin thus demonstrated our descent from hominids that evolved into Homo sapiens.

Unfortunately, science once again clashed with the clergy (see Galileo) who preached divine creation. Thus, Darwin, while not denying the existence of God, having placed man on the same level as all other animals, faced accusations of blasphemy from the Catholic Church.

The Anglican Church, however, embraced Darwin’s vision, and upon his death, he was buried in Westminster Abbey in London.

Returning to Lucy, I imagine her petite (weighing about 55 pounds), a bit furry, digging for roots, which she nibbled along with seeds and other meadow herbs.

Therefore, I dedicate this dish to her, Lucy Tubers for Charles Darwin. In recent years, fortunately, tubers and roots, once underrated, have come back into vogue even among great chefs like Leemann, Ottolenghi, Norbert Niederkofler, etc.

Among tubers, there are not only potatoes or carrots but also sweet potatoes, parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes, beets, celery root, and rutabaga.

I chose the sweet potato for Lucy, which I filled with lentils, quinoa, herbs, and flowers. I accompanied it with Jerusalem artichoke, beet, red fruit mustard, coconut cream, and pumpkin seeds.