Chapter · Italy · At the table
A book nobody wanted
How a retired merchant built a national cuisine by post
Thirty years after unification Italy has no common cuisine and does not believe a recipe book can sell. A retired silk merchant publishes one at his own expense, and will sell two hundred and eighty-three thousand.
Context first
A lesson to read before the others, to set the scene.
- The place
- The era
- The people
The lessons in this chapter
- 1Two hundred lire and the rightsHe is offered two hundred lire and the cession of his rights. He refuses, prints a thousand copies at his own expense expecting a fiasco, and ends at two hundred and eighty-three thousand.9 min
- 2I owe these recipes to ladiesIn the middle of his manual the author writes that he owes several recipes to the courtesy of ladies who sent them in. He tried them before printing them, and he says which ones.9 min
- 3The priest they called Don PomodoroThe manual’s tomato sauce opens with a Romagna priest nicknamed Don Pomodoro because he meddled in everything. The recipe that follows runs to four lines and has neither sugar nor carrot.9 min
How these lessons are written
Each lesson starts from first-hand sources: Wikisource, Gallica, Persée, archives, museums and institutes. A fact without a source does not get written, and every lesson lists its own as direct links.
The rhythm
A lesson is five minutes of cards and four questions. Those questions then come back the next day, then at 3, 7, 21 and 60 days, and that return is what makes it stick. One a day is enough, and you can do several in a row.