Delizia!: The Epic History of the Italians and Their Food [Kindle Edition]

John Dickie (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this revelatory history of gourmet Italy from antiquity to today, Dickie (Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia), examines the centuries of religious, political and sociological events that effectively thrust Italian food into today's global limelight. Though it begins with the requisite gnocchi, lasagna, tagliatelle and tortellini, this bittersweet historical narrative quickly dispels the romantic notion that contemporary Italian fare has been the prideful plate of the rural peninsula and peasants throughout the ages. Dickie tracks the country's culinary saga to medieval times, during which the impoverished would have been less likely to eat bistecca alla fiorentina or risotto alla milanese (had either existed), as they were to subsist on banal fare like turnips and polenta, with little concept of epicurean taste or pride. He notes that it was the urban areas, replete with food markets and money, that enabled foods like Parmigiano-Reggiano and mortadella to become Italian staples. As Dickie shows, the mainstream American concept of Italian food is a modern-day notion developed as a mixture of the multiple identities of the country's cities. Boisterous, gluttonous stories—some verging on salacious—are balanced by accounts of paucity in this look into Italian history and its edibles. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Lots of books are written with passion about Italian food, precious few backed up with the deep historical background here presented in allegro con brio style by a clear-headed historian who rubbishes some too-persistent myths and replaces them with factual narratives no less fascinating. Dickie shows how Italian regional cuisines developed and some dishes became global icons. If we are what we eat, who wouldn't want to be Italian?" -- The Times (London)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 1821 KB
• Print Length: 384 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (January 8, 2008)
• Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000YJ549Y
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #101,038 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

  #53 in	Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Gastronomy > History
  #43 in	Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Cooking, Food & Wine > Regional & International > European > Italian
  #85 in	Kindle Store > Kindle Books > History > Europe > Italy

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a veritable feast, January 7, 2008

By	E. Halpern (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Delizia!: The Epic History of the Italians and Their Food (Hardcover)

This is a splendid book that surveys a big, broad sweep of culinary history. It's eminently readable. Dickie employs an interesting device in this regard: each of the chronologicall ordered chapters is set in a particular place at a particular time. The most compelling sections, for me, were those that dealt with the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when nationalist projects impacted heavily on Italian foodways. An essential book to be placed alongside such classics as Waverly Root's The Food of Italy and Marlena De Blasi's volumes on regional Italian cuisine.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pleasant, readable, interesting., July 19, 2008

By	frumiousb "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Delizia!: The Epic History of the Italians and Their Food (Hardcover)

This is one of those books that is ideally read when you need a break from heavy thinking, but still want to feel that you are not reading junk. It would probably be a perfect introduction to a trip to Italy (or a book to bring with you on the same trip).

First things first, although you will find a number of fun historical facts and myth-busting nuggets regarding Italian food, this is not really a history of the food itself. You will not find recipes or useful tips to use in your own kitchen. Dickie is a historian, among other talents, and approaches this book from the point of view of the relationship of the country to their food.

The book moves from the Medieval Table to The Land of Plenty (modern Italy) as chapter organization. If there is a unifying theme or point, it is that Dickie makes it clear that food in Italy has been an urban and not a peasant business, directly intertwined with currents in culture and politics.

The book is readable, if perhaps not as lively as it could have been. I enjoyed the book, and am planning to lend this copy to a good friend later today. I would recommend it to most people. Great for the armchair historian who also happens to be fond of eating.

(I really appreciated the list of sources that Dickie appended to the book. It provided a rich source for future reading on the topic.)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Episodic if not quite epic, December 10, 2008

By	E. N. Anderson (Riverside, CA USA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Delizia!: The Epic History of the Italians and Their Food (Hardcover)

This is a delightful and excellently written book, essential if you want to probe into Italian food. It is not a history, though, epic or otherwise; it's a series of stories that bring out key moments in Italian food history. Dickie is a superb storyteller. The tales range from really crucial--especially the tale of how Pellegrino Artusi created the Great Italian Cookbook--to fascinating byways.
There are almost no recipes, and the most ambitious one is wildly impractical: how to make 100 pounds of baloney (correctly "mortadelle"). Not what I will do this weekend.
A few random notes: p. 48, on Marco Polo: "Why does he never mention the Great Wall or acupuncture?" Well, maybe because the Great Wall wasn't built till about 200 years after his time, and acupuncture didn't reach its modern form and popularity for even longer. On p. 227 Dickie gives one of the fictional origin points of the modern and ridiculous story that Marco introduced pasta to Italy. 53 and later: "heavily spiced" medieval food: Probably it's just because Dickie is British, but maybe he never tried the recipes. Medieval food in Italy and elsewhere (it was pretty similar all round the Mediterranean then, as Dickie points out) was not heavily spiced. Many recipes survive and give quantities. The spices spark up the flavors and are not terribly obtrusive. The modern pumpkin pie is a completely medieval recipe (except the pumpkin wasn't known till the 16th century); its spicing is the standard mix and quantity used in countless dishes back then. You judge whether that's "heavy spicing." 163: "pungent rue"--same story. The rank scent of rue cooks out when you use it as a cooking herb, and it gives a surprisingly mild flavor to the dish.
189ff, a long and superb account of cholera in Naples includes everything except one point: The main reason Naples is so cursed is that the Bay of Naples has the right mix of salt and fresh water and warmth to maximize the success of the cholera bacillus.
All of which trivial points detract none at all from a thoroughly enjoyable book. I once heard a Roman waiter say to an Italian-American man who had had a bit too much wine and protested at the long wait while his food was cooked to order, "You must respect the pasta!!" Right.