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Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History
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 Italian peninsula.
Alberto Capatti and Massimo Montanari uncover a network of culinary customs, food lore, and cooking practices, dating back as far as the Middle Ages, that are identifiably Italian:
o Italians used forks 300 years before other Europeans, possibly because they were needed to handle pasta, which is slippery and dangerously hot.
o Italians invented the practice of chilling drinks and may have invented ice cream.
o Italian culinary practice influenced the rest of Europe to place more emphasis on vegetables and less on meat.
o Salad was a distinctive aspect of the Italian meal as early as the sixteenth century.
The authors focus on culinary developments in the late medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras, aided by a wealth of cookbooks produced throughout the early modern period. They show how Italy's culinary identities emerged over the course of the centuries through an exchange of information and techniques among geographical regions and social classes. Though temporally, spatially, and socially diverse, these cuisines refer to a common experience that can be described as Italian. Thematically organized around key issues in culinary history 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.
Alberto Capatti and Massimo Montanari uncover a network of culinary customs, food lore, and cooking practices, dating back as far as the Middle Ages, that are identifiably Italian:
o Italians used forks 300 years before other Europeans, possibly because they were needed to handle pasta, which is slippery and dangerously hot.
o Italians invented the practice of chilling drinks and may have invented ice cream.
o Italian culinary practice influenced the rest of Europe to place more emphasis on vegetables and less on meat.
o Salad was a distinctive aspect of the Italian meal as early as the sixteenth century.
The authors focus on culinary developments in the late medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras, aided by a wealth of cookbooks produced throughout the early modern period. They show how Italy's culinary identities emerged over the course of the centuries through an exchange of information and techniques among geographical regions and social classes. Though temporally, spatially, and socially diverse, these cuisines refer to a common experience that can be described as Italian. Thematically organized around key issues in culinary history 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.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1999
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280 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 12, 2021
Italian Cuisine: A Cultural History is pretty much encyclopedic in its scope: it goes down history, beginning with the Romans and Apicius (the famous Roman cookbook), through the Middle Ages, the Fascist era and into more modern, post-war years. And it covers pretty much every aspect of food, from ingredients to peasant food versus noble food, from food as medicine to the changing perceptions of what it means to be healthy. Appetite is discussed, as are banquets, kitchen layout, recipes (and how they changed), cookbooks, foreign influences on Italian food, the kitchen brigade (and its striking similarity, even in terms of uniform, to a military set-up), scientific advancements that impact cooking and food, and much, much more.
There are illustrations, wood cuts, engravings, and photographs to accompany the text, and copious notes at the end. What’s more, the authors provide many examples to support each assertion of theirs, quoting from various food writers, writers of literature, and other personages across the ages.
While I found a lot of the book very engrossing (mostly, the topics I’ve mentioned above, which stayed with me), some of it gets rather too dry. It’s written in a rather stereotypically ‘academic’ fashion, which is not something I warm to. Despite that, the fact that I liked so much of it says a lot for the book.
(And, finally, I found someone produce a lucid, convincing argument for why it’s wrong to say that Europeans hankered after spices because they needed the spices to prevent preserved meats from spoiling. That was a real eye-opener).
There are illustrations, wood cuts, engravings, and photographs to accompany the text, and copious notes at the end. What’s more, the authors provide many examples to support each assertion of theirs, quoting from various food writers, writers of literature, and other personages across the ages.
While I found a lot of the book very engrossing (mostly, the topics I’ve mentioned above, which stayed with me), some of it gets rather too dry. It’s written in a rather stereotypically ‘academic’ fashion, which is not something I warm to. Despite that, the fact that I liked so much of it says a lot for the book.
(And, finally, I found someone produce a lucid, convincing argument for why it’s wrong to say that Europeans hankered after spices because they needed the spices to prevent preserved meats from spoiling. That was a real eye-opener).
April 19, 2024
Manuale molto interessante che parla della cucina italiana in diversi modi, si parla di Medioevo e si finisce col dopoguerra, illustrando gli usi e i costumi del nostro paese. Alberto Capatti e Massimo Montanari espongono con grande chiarezza ciò che è il nostro patrimonio culturale in cucina, credo sia molto interessante sapere come si iniziava il pasto una volta rispetto ad oggi o chi serviva i piatti, come sono composti i ricettari. Una lettura molto interessante e stimolante.
July 11, 2019
La prima parte, dedicata alla storia della cucina e del gusto, dalla romanità a oggi, è strepitosa. Tutto quello che diamo per scontato e ovvio non lo è. Per esempio, nel '600 c'è stata una rivoluzione nella cucina. Da allora, "la zuppa di cavolo deve sapere di cavolo, il porro di porro, la rapa di rapa". Prima non era così.
La seconda parte è un pò noiosa ed è dedicata prevalentemente alla storia dei libri di cucina.
La seconda parte è un pò noiosa ed è dedicata prevalentemente alla storia dei libri di cucina.
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October 10, 2024A fascinating look at the history of cooking (or rather the history of writing about cooking) in the Italian peninsula before it was unified. Who knew that in the 1400s there were cookbooks circulating in Italy (that was not Italy at them time, just saying).
Very useful research for a certain book that takes place in Tuscany.
Very useful research for a certain book that takes place in Tuscany.
August 27, 2025
THIS IS NOT A REVIEW FOR THIS BOOK THIS IS A REVIEW FOR HIS BOOK ON ITALIAN SANDWICHES GOODREADS JUST DOESN'T HAVE IT!
A bit lyrical and overwrought but generally very interesting especially if you're into Italian regional sandwiches. I wish he had taken us further into Italian American sandwiches but I guess that's another book!
A bit lyrical and overwrought but generally very interesting especially if you're into Italian regional sandwiches. I wish he had taken us further into Italian American sandwiches but I guess that's another book!
April 12, 2021
Un libro straordinario ma estremamente dettagliato. Si può annegare nelle migliaia di termini che l'autore cita nel suo libro, soprattutto se non si è italiani. Tuttavia, ci sono alcune informazioni e aneddoti davvero interessanti!
March 28, 2024
Come saggio sulla cucina italiana, e' abbastanza completo fino agli inizi del 900, dopo la quantita' di notizie diminuisce. La trattazione salta un po' qua e la' nei temi e nei tempi, con una scrittura talvolta pesantuccia che non mette in evidenza i concetti e le linee narrative principali
October 8, 2019
Heavily referenced with many lists, origins, transformations of food and language, dry but enthusiastically described.
April 18, 2020
Interesting things within it, but super fricking boring to get through.
July 5, 2022
Has some good ideas, I found many things interesting but the writing is quite bad.
January 1, 2023
Very fascinating book with very condensed information. I really loved it! Helped me understand the origins of Italian Food and many aspects I had never thought about.
September 5, 2021
Basterebbero le corpose pagine finali di bibliografia e il sommario a indicare la natura (quasi) enciclopedica di questo libro. Tutti gli aspetti della “cucina” sono infatti sviscerati: storia della cibi, evoluzioni del gusto, figure professionali, utensili, ricettari, tecnologie e così via, messi spesso in prospettiva, a sottolineare quanto la componente culturale incida in un campo a torto considerato legato alla “natura” degli elementi e degli appettiti. Molte mitologie sono quindi abbattute (la dieta mediterranea…), anche se è proprio la quantità di informazioni (mai libro fu più sottolineato) ad appesantire la lettura che, alla lunga, può risultare anche noiosa. Rimane comunque un ottimo punto di partenza per affrontare l’argomento.
December 14, 2007
I got this for a birthday or Christmas present some years ago. I still remember the fascinating origins of pasta, and the insane use of sugar!
June 28, 2015
book for college paper
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews