The Renaissance of Italian Cooking

by Lorenza de'Medici

An erudite expert on Italian cuisine finally shares the refined cooking methods perfected by her ancestors. Here are 150 mouth-watering menus from the great old families, ranging from appetizers to after-dinner delicacies.

Genres: Cooking, Cookbooks, Nonfiction, Italian Literature, Italy

192 pages, Hardcover

First published September 9, 1989

About the author

Lorenza de Medici has published more than 30 cookbooks. She has appeared in a 13-part series on Italian cooking for public television and conducts a cooking school at Badia a Coltibuono, an 11th-century estate and winery near the Chianti region of Tuscany. She divides her time between Milan and Badia a Coltibuono.

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A coffee table book, part history, part beautiful photography, part cookbook, although you'd never take it in the kitchen !
The recipes given are not your average Italian fare, they are for this who live in the grand houses which are depicted.
Frankly I would not have bought it at its cover price of £20, had it not been in a second hand shop at half that.
Having said that, this was the list price in 1989. Now virtually every cookbook, let alone a book of this quality, is £20 +
I bought a bargain.

[Redsteve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although it's got some interesting recipes, this comes off as more of a coffee table book than a practical cookbook. Broken up into regions of Italy, each section is about equally devoted to beautiful color photographs of food, architecture, art and the countryside, descriptions of each region, and actual recipes. If you are looking for rustic Italian cooking, this is not the book; focus is on the lifestyles and dishes of the upper crust. I give this a 3.5 as a coffee table book about Italy and a low 3 as a cookbook.

[reveurdart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cookbook with an emphasis on the historical side, which is why I picked it up. I can't speak about the dishes too much, as I've only made 7 of them - all of which turned out really well - but the rest I haven't gotten to yet. There're probably dishes I won't be making as they're dishes for large gatherings. I enjoyed it, but not one I imagine I'll use often.