Authentic Italian: The Real Story of Italy's Food and Its People

by Dina M. Di Maio

Authentic Italian is revolutionizing the way we think about Italian food and culture. Changing perceptions and challenging the media’s portrayal of Italian food, this book is reclaiming Italian cuisine for the Italian immigrants who popularized it. In the same vein as Michael Twitty's Cooking Gene and Sean Sherman's Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen. Experience what Primo magazine calls a "must-read."

Just when you thought you knew everything about Italian food, the world's most popular cuisine, in comes Authentic Italian, a book by a food writer and lawyer, who brings a new perspective on the much loved cuisine. With meticulous research, Di Maio critically examines Italian food as it has been defined by the food media and celebrity chefs. In this enlightening book, she also explores how Italian immigrants shaped the culinary landscape of America.

Pizza and spaghetti and meatballs are two of the most loved foods brought by Italian immigrants. But the new message is that true pizza comes from Naples and spaghetti and meatballs is not Italian. Who says so? The question is--who gets to define Italian food? Governments to drum up business for a failing economy? Corporations to strengthen their own bottom line? Academics who rely on books and statistics out of touch with the true culture? Celebrity chefs with books to sell and restaurants to fill? Di Maio offers the novel argument that the definition of Italian food belongs to the Italian people, the immigrants who carried it with them all over the world and created successful food businesses wherever they went.

Not without controversy, Di Maio doesn't shy away from discussing the harsh reality of a war-torn Southern Italy to expose what the immigrant generation really went through before they were forced to make the journey overseas. And she also details what they found in their new countries abroad, hardly a road paved with gold.

Follow Di Maio on this culinary journey as she evokes the spirit of justice that the immigrant generation held dear. She tells the story of the Italian people as if her ancestors were there, whispering it in her ear: No matter what the popular food media states, the recipes, foods and traditions of the Italian-American people are nothing less than authentic Italian.

302 pages, Paperback

Published March 19, 2018

Reviews

[Truby Chiaviello · Rating 5 out of 5]

When we Italian Americans sit at our tables to eat, we consume not just family recipes and relish culinary traditions, but we partake in a human journey that reaches far beyond our homes and contemporary lives. That’s the premise of Dina Di Maio’s extraordinary new book, “Authentic Italian: The Real Story of Italy’s Food and Its People.”
Dina conveys the amazing and complex history of Italian food in a concise and direct writing style. Recipes are not only about ingredients and how best to combine them but about the migration and settlement of Italians in America and elsewhere. If you think such an examination is without controversy, think again: The story of Italian food rests on the persecution of Italians and the prejudices and biases they had to overcome here in the United States, but also in Italy and the many confrontations they faced there between North and South.
Dina writes: “For without Italy and the Italian diaspora, there would be no Italian presence in the United States and its footways. So a discussion about the food of Americans of Italian descent must start at the source - Southern Italy, from where the majority of early Italian immigrants to the United States came. And the story of their foodways must start with why the came. Their foodways are intertwined with their history.”
Dina puts to shame the idea that the Risorgimento was a glorious revolution that saved Italy. On the contrary, she rightly notes that the Risorgimento was an invasion of Southern Italy by the North. What once was the Kingdom of Two Sicilies was now conquered territory that succumbed to years of economic and cultural persecution by Italy’s North. This gave way to mass migration out of Italy and the creation of Italian food in America. She writes: “The early Italian immigrants suffered a profound prejudice and discrimination that transcends generations, a prejudice their descendants contend with still. And it is so deep that it continues to pervade all aspects of their existence - including the food they eat.”
Dina’s research is incredible. She delivers an enormous amount of material in an effort to define what is and what is not authentic Italian food. Not an easy task when you consider the melding of cultures in America. Dina distinguishes between Italian and Italian American food, and how they are equal in taste and sustainability. She points out also that recipes developed by Italian American chefs and entrepreneurs are sometimes “American” in style and taste, and not “Italian.”
What makes the book most intriguing is when Dina delves into the rich history of the most famous Italian dishes. She relays the surprising origins of spaghetti and meatballs. She does the same for pizza and a host of other dishes such as Caesar salad, fettuccine Alfredo and many more.
“Authentic Italian: The Real Story of Italy’s Food and Its People” is a must-read for all Italian Americans. The book is richly insightful, informative and entertaining. We all love Italian food. What better way to know what we love than to read an extraordinary book about the origins and travels of the world’s greatest cuisine.

[Chef JS · Rating 4 out of 5]

My relationship with this book is complicated. First, know this is not a cookbook. It's not a memoir.
It's an argument, in the formal, philosophical sense.

It makes an exhaustively supported case that Italian-American food IS Italian Food. This claim is controversial, and predicated on two major assumptions that I don't entirely agree with. First, that the term Italian-American is a term of disparagement, and second, that dishes created in the US, inside Italian communities, are authentic Italian cuisine.

Initially, I was kinda bewildered by the first claim. I grew up in Chicago, surrounded by Italian Americans, in positions of respect and authority. I idolized Italian-American chefs (and restaurant owners). My roommate in college was Italian-American, and my cooking and business partner is now.

The second claim troubled me on the grounds of terminology. To me, since Italian-American wasn't a dig, it seemed needlessly confusing to label Italian American dishes (let's talk about the big winners: veal parmigiano, spaghetti and gigantic meatballs, Chicago-style pizza, chicken Vesuvio) Italian, since they originated here. I've studied cuisine my whole life, and nomenclature is important to me. (I'd rather get MORE granular. Let's talk about Ligurian cuisine, Sicilian cuisine, Neopolitan cuisine, Piedmont cuisine.) Also, not for nothin', dropping the '-American' erases Italian-American cuisine's American identity. I'm sure that to certain people who grew up in Italian enclaves, this doesn't feel like cultural erasure, but outside-looking-in, I'm inclined to disagree.

But if you look at the second claim in light of the first, a more complex picture emerges. I'm giving this book as high a rating as I am because it started a conversation between me and my colleagues, about the nature of diaspora cuisine (Italian and others), and about how culture spreads, and about how complex social dyamics shape the way we think about food.

If this sounds like an interesting rabbit whole to jump down, go for it. I'm not sure another book exists that broaches this particular topic.

[Jesse]

This was interesting. What the book doesn't tell you, in its title or subtitle, is that what this book really is, is a passionate defense of Italian American culture in general, and cuisine in particular, as a genuine outgrowth of Italian culture.

I have complex feelings about this book, although it was certainly an interesting and worthwhile read. The author makes great points about the oppression faced by Southern Italian immigrants, both in their native Italy and here in the US, and as a reaction to a lifetime of facing prejudice, I have a hard time judging this book for occasionally being a little dogmatic. But it was, occasionally, a little dogmatic.

I'm not ready to give a rating. My feelings about this work are too complicated to distill down to a star level, and I only finished reading it a few minutes ago. I definitely think it presents a new and vital perspective about the nature of Italian diaspora culture in the US. However, I think there's a flaw in one of her central theses: that being that to call something Italian-American is to, by definition, marginalize it. A lot of her narrative rests on this point, and I need to mull this over, and talk to some Italian-American acquaintances about it.

I'm not going to write anymore here. In a day or two, I'll put up a formal review on my blog, hotdogsandcaviar.blogspot.com.

[Dom S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first thought when after finishing this book was, "wow, I hope this gets translated into Italian someday so Italian speakers can also read this." It's a powerful testament about Italian food in America and its mischaracterization by media, Americans, Italians, and others. This book also explores Italian-American prejudice in the past and today. I thought it was very important to acknowledge the plight of Italian immigrants in America.

If you're Italian-American, you'll relate to the little tidbits Di Maio inserts about her life as an Italian-American. I recommend this book to Italian-Americans, Italians, or even any immigrant to the US. You'll find something to relate to and it will definitely broaden your perspective on how Italian food (specifically, Italian food made popular by Italian immigrants) shaped the world.

[Joanna Conte · Rating 5 out of 5]

This history of what is considered Italian and Italian/American food is a rich study of the culture and food that Italian immigrants brought along with them along with a valise full of Italian lore! Many today feel that some dishes such as spaghetti and meatballs or pizza were created here in America. That is not the case says Ms. Di Maio. She is correct. My dad brought along his recipes for chicken soup with cicoria or dandelion greens which we ate every Easter. My neighbors brought their recipe for bagna Cauda or anchovy dip from their home in the Piedmont region of Italy.

I enjoyed this book; Dina gives us a broad picture of the Italian culture and how it is reflected in the foods that are eaten here in the USA and Italy.

[Luci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't mistake this for a cook book! It is a fascinating recipe of history and culture seasoned with wit and humor. It sets out to dispel the fallacy that the food we hold as Italian is really not brought here from Italy. The author has done her research to reveal a story of the truth about our ancestors and their journey to this country, and their efforts to keep their culture through traditional foods. I was surprised how much I didn't know about the subject, but certainly enjoyed learning.

[Deanna Martinez-Bey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this author and her books! Her writing is down to earth and entertaining!

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a thorough and exhaustively researched look into the history of what we consider Italian food in America, and by that I mean, Southern Italian food. Through research-based evidence, it dismisses the current notion that what we consider Italian food in America is somehow inauthentic, or disparagingly called Italian-American. It gives the food of our parents and grandparents and great grandparents back the respect it deserves, and rightly recognizes its roots in Southern Italy and influence on American cuisine. I’m thankful for it and highly recommend to anyone interested in Italian food.