Italian Literature - Cookbooks

Here is a list of the three most popular Italian cookbooks: The Science of Cooking and the Art of Eating Well by Pellegrino Artusi; The Talisman of Happiness by Ada Boni; and The Silver Spoon. If you are interested in Italian food, do not miss them! Artusi's and Boni's book are not a simple collection of recepis. They are authentic masterpieces of the Italian literature. These books were translated into English but the translations are ... what they are (bad!). As every masterpiece of Italian literature, these works can be understood only if read in the context of time and period they were written. No translations will not give them justice!

La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiare bene (The Science of Cooking and the Art of Eating Well) by Pellegrino Artusi (1820 – 1911) is one of most famous Italian cookbooks. Writing only two decades after the unification of Italy, Artusi was the first to include recipes from all the different regions of Italy in a single cookbook. He is often credited with establishing a truly national Italian cuisine for the first time.

Il talismano della felicità (The Talisman of Happiness in English) by Ada Boni is a well-known Italian cookbook originally published in 1929. It is believed to be the first Italian cookbook specifically targeted to housewives, and along with the work of Pellegrino Artusi and Editoriale Domus' Il cucchiaio d'argento is considered one of the defining recipe and cooking-advice collections in Italian cuisine. The standard edition is 911 pages long.

Il cucchiaio d'argento (The Silver Spoon in English) is a major Italian cookbook, a kitchen reference work originally published in 1950 by the design and architecture magazine Domus. It contains about 2000 recipes drawn from all over Italy, and has gone through eight editions. It is one of the most popular cookbooks in Italy, and was born from a post-World War II pricing dispute between the publishers and some of the distributors of the popular Il talismano della felicità by Ada Boni. Editoriale Domus still publishes the book as a single volume currently covering Primi (first courses), Secondi (entrées), Dolci (desserts), and summer dishes.