Il padre della cucina italiana
The Father of Italian Cooking
Long after the unification of Italy in 1861, the “new” Italians continued to cook and eat like the “old” Pisans, Romans, Sicilians, or Genovese they had always been. The man who almost single-handedly overcame regional divisions to create a truly national cuisine was Pellegrino Artusi (1820-1911).
Born in Forlimpopoli in Emilia-Romagna, he moved to Florence as a young man and prospered as a self-styled banker, trader, voracious scholar, and most of all, as he put it, a passionate seeker “of the good and the beautiful wherever I find them”--particularly al tavolo (at the table). Retiring at age 50, the lifelong bachelor transformed his kitchen into a culinary laboratory.
A portly man with a bushy white walrus mustache that extended to his sideburns, Artusi compiled 475 ricette (recipes), along with down-to-earth advice on health and nutrition, into a thick volume worthy of its impressive title, La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiar bene (The Science of Cooking and the Art of Eating Well).
No publisher wanted his homespun cookbook. After a string of contemptuous rejections, Artusi dedicated his book to his two cats and published 1000 copies himself in 1891. It took four years to sell them. But despite this sluggish start, L’Artusi, as the book came to be known, became a literary phenomenon and a landmark in Italian culture.
The inhabitants of every household, humble or high-brow, wanted their own L’Artusi. They still do. L’Artusi remains il libro più letto sulla cucina italiana (the most read book on Italian cooking).
When I came across a copy at a villa we were renting, Artusi won me over with his first sentence, “Cooking is una briconcella--a troublesome sprite,” he observed, “Often it may drive you to despair. Yet when you do succeed, or overcome a great difficulty in doing so, you feel the satisfaction of a great triumph.”
A lover of words as well as food, Artusi committed himself to “our beautiful, harmonious language,” based on the Tuscan tongue of Dante. Translating from dialects and using a light, engaging style, he also introduced regional recipes, such as piselli col prosciutto (peas with ham from Rome) and stracotto di vitello (veal stew from Florence) that many Italians in other places had never tasted.
For the 14th edition, bulging with 790 recipes (many contributed by readers), Artusi, who lived to age 91, added a celebratory preface called “The Story of a Book that Is like the Story of Cinderella,” the saga of a scorned manuscript that became a sensation—and laid the foundation for Italian cuisine as we know it.
One hundred years after Artusi’s death in 1911, the Casa Artusi in Forlimpopoli, un centro di cultura gastronomica di cucina domestica italiana (a center of gastronomic culture of Italian home cooking), is celebrating the Centenario Artusiano (Artusi Centenary) with special events, including dinners, conferences, exhibitions, and performances. Just visiting the site is enough to far venire l'aquolina in bocca (make one's mouth water).
Words and Expressions
cucina casalinga –- home (literally housewife) cooking
alta cucina -- haute cuisine
alla maniera dell’Artusi -- in the manner of Artusi
essere /diventare un mago in cucina -- to be / become a magician (whiz) in the kitchen
avere un palato fine -- to have a refined palate
Dianne Hales is the author of LA BELLA LINGUA: My Love Affair with Italian, the World’s Most Enchanting Language.
WOW!!!! That's fantastico! complimenti e tanti auguroni..
Posted by: carol | March 27, 2011 at 10:38 AM
I like this post. Makes me want to read that recipe book!
Posted by: Mary-Jo | March 25, 2011 at 12:46 AM