At the table of a wealthy Florentine Renaissance merchant, meals were not served as "starter-main course-dessert." The meal alternated between two complementary services: the servizio di credenza (laid out on the cold buffet: salads, fruits, confections, fruit pastes, spiced wines) and the servizio di cucina (brought hot from the kitchen: soups, boiled meats, roasts in sauce). Sweet and savory dishes mingled freely throughout the convito, and sugar as well as spices signaled the wealth of the household.

The cuisine of wealthy Tuscan merchants is recognizable by two hallmarks: saffron (zafferano), the golden spice that colors and perfumes prestige dishes, and the agrodolce (sweet-and-sour) taste where vinegar or verjuice meets sugar, honey, and dried fruits. Mastering both means showing that you have the means to import spices and cane sugar via trade routes.