PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Chef Walter Stab of City Tavern restaurant says people in the 18th century cooked very differently than the way we cook today.

Walter Staib

“They used a lot of lards, they used a lot of creams.”

And he says their tools were a lot more primitive.

“Let me tell you the kitchens — and this is a fact — and I will tell you from the reasearch we’ve done, the fire was never out. Just imagine the bread. There’s no such thing of buying bread.”

With no convenience stores or sophisticated storage methods, they ate fresh every day, and Stab says they cooked with many more ingredients than we use today:

“And you think about George Washington’s chef right here in Philadelphia, Hercules, when you think about Thomas Jefferson’s chef, I mean those guys were absolutely artists from the way I see it. I have a tremendous respect for the 18th century culinarians because they had a real hardship trying to put out some fantastic meals.”

Reported by Hadas Kuznits, KYW Newsradio