Available:*
Shelf Number | Material Type | Copy | Shelf Location | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
641.5945 MAR | Book | 1 | Standard shelving location | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Not so long ago, Italian food was regarded as a poor man's gruel-little more than pizza, macaroni with sauce, and red wines in a box. Here, John Mariani shows how the Italian immigrants to America created, through perseverance and sheer necessity, an Italian-American food culture, and how it became a global obsession. The book begins with the Greek, Roman, and Middle Eastern culinary traditions before the boot-shaped peninsula was even called "Italy," then takes readers on a journey throughEurope and across the ocean to America alongside the poor but hopeful Italian immigrants who slowly but surely won over the hearts and minds of Americans by way of their stomachs. Featuring evil villains such as the Atkins diet and French chefs, this is a rollicking tale of how Italian cuisine rose to its place as the most beloved fare in the world, through the lives of the people who led the charge.
With savory anecdotes from these top chefs and restaurateurs:
- Mario Batali
- Danny Meyer
- Tony Mantuano
- Michael Chiarello
- Giada de Laurentiis
- Giuseppe Cipriani
- Nigella Lawson
And the trials and triumphs of these restaurants:
- Da Silvano
- Spiaggia
- Bottega
- Union Square Cafe
- Maialino
- Rao's
- Babbo
- Il Cantinori
Author Notes
John Mariani is a food and travel columnist for Esquire, wine columnist for Bloomberg News , has a newsletter that goes out to 40,000 subscribers. He has been called by The Philadelphia Inquirer "the most influential food-wine critic in the popular press." He is author of The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, The Dictionary of Italian Food & Drink , and with his wife Galina, The Italian-American Cookbook. He lives in Tuckahoe, New York.
Lidia Bastianich is an American chef and restaurateur. Specializing in Italian and Croatian cuisine, she has been a regular contributor to the PBS cooking show lineup since 1998. In 2007, she launched her third TV series, Lidia's Italy . She also owns four Italian restaurants in the U.S.: Felidia and Becco in Manhattan; Lidia's Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Lidia's Kansas City in Kansas City, Missouri.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Mariani, author of The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink and the food and wine correspondent for Esquire magazine, makes a declarative statement in this fact-filled, entertaining history and substantiates it with hundreds of facts in this meaty history of the rise of Italian food culture around the globe. From Charles Dickens's journey through Italy in 1844 to 20th-century immigrants to America selling ice cream on the streets of New Orleans, Mariani constantly surprises the reader with little-known culinary anecdotes about Italy and its people, who have made pasta and pizza household dishes in the U.S. and beyond. Mariani's heavy emphasis on specific chefs and restaurant owners in the latter half of the book may tire your average reader, but foodies will delight as he details the rise and fall of French cuisine during the 1980s and '90s as trattorias eventually take the States by storm. Mariani includes many recipes throughout. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Making sense of Italian food's history is no small undertaking, but like any true professional, longtime Esquire food correspondent and legendary restaurant columnist Mariani handles the subject with ease. Organized into categories and loosely chronological, Mariani's trove of facts and anecdotes helps chronicle the cuisine's rise to fame. Italian food had some troubles early on. Often viewed as cheap peasant grub, it took decades to gain traction outside of Italy. But with time, it was everywhere and could compete (for dollars and critical praise) with even French cuisine, the perennial gold standard. Mariani explains the obvious factors, like pizza's immeasurable contribution, but touches on many surprising ones, like the allure the Mafia brought to family-owned establishments. The world outside of the U.S. and Europe is barely addressed, though. One wonders whether fettuccini alfredo is as pervasive in, say, India, as it is on American menus. And if not, why? But readers will be salivating too much to mind. Fortunately, classic recipes are included throughout.--Bayer, Casey Copyright 2010 Booklist
Choice Review
In 1861, a loose confederation of about 20 contiguous geographical regions united to form the country of Italy. From Piedmont in the north to Sicily in the south, each region had its own distinct cuisine; thus no cuisine distinctly identifiable as "Italian" existed. By the late-19th century, however, poor immigrants to the US from southern regions like Campagna, Abruzzo, and Sicily were beginning to develop an Italian American cuisine, which, according to Esquire food and travel correspondent Mariani, would become the most popular cuisine in the world. In the beginning, this Italian American cuisine consisted largely of pizza, pasta with red sauce, and "dago red" wine. Americans embraced it because it was inexpensive comfort food served in large quantities. Mariani chronicles the evolution of this lowbrow cuisine over the course of the 20th century. He also adds chapters on the rise of Italian haute cuisine, which he claims was spurred on in part in the 1960s by the jet set's travels to Rome and Milan to experience la dolce vita. This book is an entertaining narrative of the history and culture of both America and Italy, particularly from the 1880s to the present, through the lens of food. Summing Up: Recommended. All undergraduate students, general readers, and professionals. D. M. Gilbert Maine Maritime Academy
Library Journal Review
There has been a perceptible divide between Italian food in Italy and its translation in American popular culture. Though the conquered geographical "world" here seems specifically U.S.-centric and the subtextually displaced gastronomical power is French cuisine, Mariani (food & travel columnist, Esquire; contributing editor, Wine Spectator) takes us on a well-paced 2000-year history following the spread of Italians and their influence. Just the facts with minimal interjection, his presentation feels a bit like a newsreel ticking along-Marco Polo, ocean trade routes, Ellis Island, New Orleans, Prohibition, California, mobsters, movies, Wolfgang Puck, slow food, Mario Batali, the Food Network. Recipes, interspersed only in some chapters, are distracting because of their scarcity and the far more vivid descriptions of dishes and ingredients elsewhere in the book. Mariani is best as he discusses gastronomic culture accepting the notion of a restaurant, the etymologies of menu nomenclature, lineage of ingredients, corruption of recipes to appeal to American palates, and the humble origins, evolution, and marketing of products. VERDICT This culturally rooted culinary survival story is recommended for the chef wanting inspiration, the foodie seeking answers, or the anthropologist on a pop-culture kick. [With a 50,000-copy first printing.]-Ben Malczewski, Ypsilanti Dist. Lib., MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.