A rich, robust epicurean feast for those who enjoy history as a
main course.Dickie (Italian Studies/University College London; Cosa
Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia, 2004, etc.) begins his
extensive survey of Italian food in 12th-century Palermo and ends
in present-day Genoa. He honors the Italian notion of "civilization
of the table," which "embraces all the many different aspects of a
culture that are expressed through food." Every dish has a story
behind it, and the author's subjects range from spaghetti ("one of
the great unifying motifs in Italy's constantly shifting
gastronomic mosaic") to Parmesan cheese to the meat-dominant
cuisine of medieval Milan, where food doubled as medicine. The
descriptions of the unique ingredients used in authentic dishes
like Palermo's focaccia (stuffed with veal spleen and strips of
lung, fried in lard) or Roman pajata (intestines of an unweaned
calf, complete with mother's milk) may set inexperienced stomachs
churning. Venice in the 1300s brings on a discussion of spices.
During the Renaissance, Dickie asserts, Italy's urban food system
became more sophisticated due to the conjunction of multicourse
meals served to royalty with regal pageantry. The open-air
festivals of the early 18th century gave birth to pizza, new
technologies in the manufacturing of dried pasta and the further
development of tomato sauce, "the lifeblood of Italian food."
Describing with good humor what Italians refer to as the
"cornucopia of horrors" that constitutes American eating, Dickie
moves from Mussolini to Sophia Loren to the modern Slow Food
movement. But the "charisma" of Italian food comes across only in
certain sections; the author's dense history of early Italian
cuisine is overly comprehensive, though never entirely
inaccessible.A bit of personality and humor interjected into this
pastoral lesson might have been the seasoning the author needed to
garner more crossover appeal. (Kirkus Reviews)
Everyone loves Italian food. But how did the Italians come to eat
so well? The advertising industry tells us the answer lies in the
vineyards and olive groves of Tuscany - among sun-weathered
peasants, and mammas serving pasta under the pergola. Yet this
nostalgic fantasy has little to do with the real history of Italian
cuisine.For a thousand years, Italys cities have been magnets for
everything that makes for great eating: ingredients, talent, money,
and power. So Italian food is city food, and telling its story
means telling the story of the Italians as a people of city
dwellers. In DELIZIA! the author of the acclaimed COSA NOSTRA takes
a revelatory historical journey through the flavours of Italys
cities. From the bustle of Medieval Milan, to the bombast of
Fascist Rome; from the pleasure gardens of Renaissance Ferrara, to
the putrid alleyways of nineteenth-century Naples. In rich slices
of urban life, DELIZIA! shows how violence and intrigue, as well as
taste and creativity, combined to make the worlds favourite
cuisine.
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