Food Quiz

So you think you know a lot about food? Take this culinary quiz, and find out just how much of an idiot you are. (My sister and I took the quiz together and only managed 4 and a third. Should have been five and a third. Yup. That was our ceiling!)


1) There are over 450 varieties of this 'nut', many of which have been used for food. They are native to all continents except Australia. What nut is this?

2) Cheese has been colored with various plant substances for hundreds of years. Yellow/orange coloring may have originally been added to cheese made with winter milk from cows eating hay to match the orange hue (from vitamin A) of cheeses made with milk from cows fed on green plants. Can you name 3 plant substances which have been used to color cheese yellow/orange?

3) This blue veined cheese, was first made around 1720, and sold at the Bell Inn in a village in Huntingdonshire. It owes its name and reputation to the village, but it is not actually made there. What is the name of the village, and the cheese?

4) This traditional dish of a central European country can trace its origins back to the ninth century Magyar shepherds. Originally it consisted of chunks of meat and onions, slowly cooked until all the liquid was boiled away, and then dried in the sun. The meat could then be used to prepare a stew by boiling it in water. What is considered the key ingredient was added to the recipe in the 18th-century. What is the name of this dish, the country of origin and the key ingredient?

5) Before setting up the a fast-food restaurant chain, this man was a high school dropout, ambulance driver, jazz pianist, Florida real-estate salesman, radio station manager, and paper cup salesman. What is his name and the name of his fast-food restaurant chain?

6) This 'fruit' will not ripen on the tree. They must be picked from the tree to initiate ripening because the leaves supply a substance that prevents ripening. The best way to store them is to leave them on the tree; they will store for 7 months or more when left on the tree. What is the name of this 'fruit'?

7) It is believed that the sheep's milk cheese that Polyphemus the Cyclops made in his caves in Homer's 'Odyssey' was most likely an early form of this cheese. You are really good if you can name this cheese.

8) This sweetest of all fruits has a 55% sugar content. The tree has no blossoms because the flower is inside the fruit. What is this physically unusual fruit?

9) Native to the Mediterranean areas and the Middle East, this vegetable was used as a flavoring by the ancient Greeks and Romans and as a medicine by the ancient Chinese. It was first cultivated in Europe for medicinal purposes. Cultivation of the plant for food was first recorded in France in 1623, and was probably developed there or in Italy. By the early part of the 18th century, there had been improvement of the wild type previously transported to Italy, France, and England, and as early as 1726, the plant was being used in England to flavor soup and stews. The modern variety we all now know, was first cultivated in Kalamazoo Michigan, in 1874. Name this common vegetable.

10) First made at the beginning of the 20th century, this candy was named after a race horse of the time. Name the candy and the racehorse.

Courtesy of FoodReference.com.

(Answers in Comments)