Buon appetito Everyone loves Italian food. But how did the Italians
come to eat so well?
The answer lies amid the vibrant beauty of Italy's historic
cities. For a thousand years, they have been magnets for everything
that makes for great eating: ingredients, talent, money, and power.
Italian food is "city" food.
From the bustle of medieval Milan's marketplace to the
banqueting halls of Renaissance Ferrara; from street stalls in the
putrid alleyways of nineteenth-century Naples to the noisy
trattorie of postwar Rome: in rich slices of urban life, historian
and master storyteller John Dickie shows how taste, creativity, and
civic pride blended with princely arrogance, political violence,
and dark intrigue to create the world's favorite cuisine. "Delizia
" is much more than a history of Italian food. It is a history of
Italy told through the flavors and character of its cities.
A dynamic chronicle that is full of surprises, "Delizia " draws
back the curtain on much that was unknown about Italian food and
exposes the long-held canards. It interprets the ancient Arabic map
that tells of pasta's true origins, and shows that Marco Polo did
not introduce spaghetti to the Italians, as is often thought, but
did have a big influence on making pasta a part of the American
diet. It seeks out the medieval recipes that reveal Italy's long
love affair with exotic spices, and introduces the great
Renaissance cookery writer who plotted to murder the Pope even as
he detailed the aphrodisiac qualities of his ingredients. It moves
from the opulent theater of a Renaissance wedding banquet, with its
gargantuan ten-course menu comprising hundreds of separate dishes,
to the thin soups and bland polentas that would eventually force
millions to emigrate to the New World. It shows how early pizzas
were disgusting and why Mussolini championed risotto. Most
important, it explains the origins and growth of the world's
greatest urban food culture.
With its delectable mix of vivid storytelling, groundbreaking
research, and shrewd analysis, "Delizia " is as appetizing as the
dishes it describes. This passionate account of Italy's
civilization of the table will satisfy foodies, history buffs,
Italophiles, travelers, students -- and anyone who loves a
well-told tale.
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