Italian Cuisine: A Cultural History
Italy, the country with a hundred cities and a thousand bell towers, is also the country with a hundred cuisines and a thousand recipes. Its great variety of culinary practices reflects a history long dominated by regionalism and political division, and has led to the common conception of Italian food as a mosaic of regional customs rather than a single tradition. Nonetheless, this magnificent new book demonstrates the development of a distinctive, unified culinary tradition throughout the...
Search in google:
This magnificent new book demonstrates the development of a distinctive, unified culinary tradition throughout the Italian peninsula. Thematically organized and beautifully illustrated, Italian Cuisine is a rich history of the ingredients, dishes, techniques, and social customs behind the Italian food we know and love today. Library Journal In this history of Italy's food, cooking, and eating, the authors have opted for an "everything including the kitchen sink" approach. Throughout, Capatti, who has written several books on food and eating, and Montanari (history, Univ. of Bologna) offer extensive lists of foodstuffs and names of dishes, sometimes to the detriment of the point they are trying to make. Organized topically rather than chronologically, the book constantly folds back on itself, leaving the reader with an ongoing feeling of familiarity with recurring names but not with an appropriate context. Although the topics range widely, from the lexicon of Italian food to the dress code for kitchen staff, one senses that there are still gaps. The 20th century and the effects of the open European Community on Italian eating, for example, are scarcely touched. The wealth of notes and suggested readings are the book's greatest offering. Suitable for academic libraries.-Peter Hepburn, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago Lib. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Series Editor's PrefaceIntroduction: Identity as ExchangeCh. 1Italy: A Physical and Mental Space1Ch. 2The Italian Way of Eating35Ch. 3The Formation of Taste84Ch. 4The Sequence of Dishes121Ch. 5Communicating Food: The Recipe Collection155Ch. 6The Vocabulary of Food187Ch. 7The Cook, the Innkeeper, and the Woman of the House212Ch. 8Science and Technology in the Kitchen243Ch. 9Toward a History of the Appetite273Notes303Bibliography325Index335
\ Journal of Modern History - Priscilla Ferguson\ Italian Cuisine is not simply another history.\ \ \ \ \ \ The Daily Express - Antonio Carluccio\ A must-buy if you love Italian cuisine.\ \ \ \ Journal of Modern HistoryItalian Cuisine is not simply another history.\ — Priscilla Ferguson\ \ \ \ \ \ The Daily ExpressA must-buy if you love Italian cuisine.\ — Antonio Carluccio\ \ \ \ \ \ Time Magazines Literary SupplementA scholarly, discursive exploration of techniques, taste, service and technology.\ \ \ \ \ BooklistWith an authoritative command of the subject, Capatti and Montanari trace the changing vocabulary of Italy's earliest cookbooks from classical Latin to vernacular Italian, showing how this shift reflected the increasing significance of passing culinary skill from one generation to the next... This relentlessly academic work has an impressive bibliography of historic Italian sources.\ \ \ \ \ \ EconomistAn exhaustive and detailed investigation and will prove to be a valuable textbook for many foodies.\ \ \ \ \ \ Times Literary SupplementA scholarly, discursive exploration of techniques, taste, service and technology.\ \ \ \ \ \ BooklistWith an authoritative command of the subject, Capatti and Montanari trace the changing vocabulary of Italy's earliest cookbooks from classical Latin to vernacular Italian, showing how this shift reflected the increasing significance of passing culinary skill from one generation to the next... This relentlessly academic work has an impressive bibliography of historic Italian sources.\ — Mark Knoblauch\ \ \ \ \ \ Bell'Italia MagazineAdds a world of history to our understanding, making the case for the existence of a true Italian culinary tradition in spite of the regionality of product.... It is an engrossing, richly documented text.\ \ \ \ \ \ Library JournalIn this history of Italy's food, cooking, and eating, the authors have opted for an "everything including the kitchen sink" approach. Throughout, Capatti, who has written several books on food and eating, and Montanari (history, Univ. of Bologna) offer extensive lists of foodstuffs and names of dishes, sometimes to the detriment of the point they are trying to make. Organized topically rather than chronologically, the book constantly folds back on itself, leaving the reader with an ongoing feeling of familiarity with recurring names but not with an appropriate context. Although the topics range widely, from the lexicon of Italian food to the dress code for kitchen staff, one senses that there are still gaps. The 20th century and the effects of the open European Community on Italian eating, for example, are scarcely touched. The wealth of notes and suggested readings are the book's greatest offering. Suitable for academic libraries.-Peter Hepburn, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago Lib. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.\ \
