Regional Italian Cuisine at Chef2Chef

This sumptuous book is also practical and well organized: Each of the eight regions has its own chapter, beginning with a two-page photo spread of the land/seascape; descriptions and photos of the local food crops; notes on people, events, and sightseeing; and a page on the area wines. A list of recipes by course precedes the actual recipes and preparation techniques, allowing you to create an entire menu. At the end of each chapter are several pages highlighting the making of regional culinary products, such as sausage, olive oil, grappa, or pasta. The photographic reproductions are both vivid and informative. The book has two indexes: one from A to Z that includes a glossary, and a recipe index listed according to menu course. Regional Italian Cuisine had my mouth watering and my eyes popping at every turn of the page."

Reader Reviews
This book is an excellent way to learn about the regions of Italy and the styles of cooking done in those regions. There are maps, essays, recipes and pictures to teach you about the cuisines from the various regions. The author divides Italy not by political boundaries, but more by culture and geography. For instance several political regions (Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna) are covered in the section on cuisine from the Po River valley. Though Lombardy appears again in the section on the Mountain region (Lombardy, Piedmont, Trentino, etc.) cuisine. Though a bit "contrived," this scheme divides cuisine styles into cohesive groups. A map shows the authors "regions" overlaid onto the map of the political regions. There are not as many recipes as in some other Italian cookbooks (Hazan, Bugialli, etc.), but the ones that are present are fairly representative of the region being covered. And there are color photos of every recipe! Most of the recipes give you a sense of the essence of that "region's" cuisine. Plus each "region" has an introductory essay describing its chief culinary products and styles. It has taken me years to get a clue about the essences of cooking from various regions of Italy. I have gained bits here and there from cookbooks, articles, maps, travel guides, etc. (And I have collected a lot of material over the years.) This book confirmed much that I had already learned "the hard way," and it taught me more. Granted all of the information about Italy and the over 60 Italian cookbooks I own cannot be distilled into one volume, but this book does an excellent job of introducing you to the complex and somewhat confusing array of "Italian" cooking. If you are new to Italian cooking this is a great book to help you understand that there is no national "Italian" cooking style, but a variety of regional styles. Most of the recipes will be relatively easy for the USA cook, though there are a few with ingredients that will require a visit to a specialty store or butcher. Many traditional techniques are simplified to make the recipe easier without sacrificing much in the way of authentic taste. You will need to know some general cooking techniques that are not completely explained in this book. However, most recipes are fairly straight-forward. This is THE BEST intro to Italian cooking I know of. When you graduate from here you will have a good foundation of understanding to take you on to Hazan, Bugialli, Bastianich, etc. If you DON'T care about understanding the regions and their cuisine styles, then skip this book. Comment | (Report this)