Customer Reviews

Fine Art of Italian Cooking

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My main quibble with this book is it's title. It isn't really a book about "Italian" cuisine as a whole, but about Florentine cuisine with a generous salute to cooking from other regions and cities. A solid majority of the recipes and comments are, self-admittedly, about Florentine cuisine. Having said that, this is still an excellent book brimming with recipes. As with most of Bugialli's books the recipes occasionally require difficult to find ingredients (potato starch, bitter almonds, etc.) usually without suggesting an acceptable compromise for US cooks. On the whole, however, the recipes are generally very accessible to US cooks. And, so far, every one I've tried has been a success. It's not a book for neophyte cooks, as there are times when certain techniques are assumed.

There are no full color photos as in some of Mr. Bugialli's other books. THERE ARE many simple, basic Florentine and Italian recipes that help you understand that much Italian cooking is based on simplicity, good ingredients, wonderful flavors, and a certain refinement, elegance and finesse that is the essence of Italian cooking.

I personally find all the information from the Florentine perspective very interesting. I plan on doing several dinner parties based on purely Florentine recipes, just because this book has inspired me to do so.

While not exactly for the beginner, this book will allow anyone with some basic cooking skills to create absolutely marvelous dishes. Be forewarned that many of these recipes take quite a bit of time. You might be better off starting with simpler recipes (such as risotto or sformati) and working up to a more complex one, like the stuffed whole boned chicken.
I have made many of the recipes in this book over the last several years. It has just the right amount of detail on technique--I refer to it from time to time to clarify techniques that are missing in other cookbooks. I cannot imagine a kitchen library without it.

Simply put, this book is pretty much my cooking bible. I have made many of the recipes, and they have all been astoundingly fabulous. Do yourself a favor, and get yourself a copy immediately, and be sure to try some of the recipes that call for home made fresh pasta (the duck lasagna in particular). They can take a while, but are well worth the time and effort.

This is a lovely cookbook with a strong Tuscan focus. The book describes what the French call 'cuisine bourgeoise', i.e. traditional upper middle class food. The author really loves this food and his passion comes through very strongly.

For a number of reasons, I consider the book aimed at people who really love to cook. This and the author's other books are well worth seeking out even in 2011.
- The author has looked at manuscripts from past centuries to ensure that the recipes are fairly historically accurate. So the recipes included are proper Italian recipes.
- The authenticity focus means fewer short cuts and the recipes are not necessarily geared to a "trendy modern" palate.
- The book has no pictures.
- The author has an accompanying volume on techniques Giuliano Bugialli's Classic Techniques of Italian Cooking and several volumes on regional cuisines (e.g. Guiliano Bugialli's Food of Naples and Campania, Foods of Sicily and Sardinia and the Smaller Islands). If you want to build a library of Italian cookbooks, I think you should start with Bugialli's many books.

The author would probably consider the audience broader than this. And it is true that many of the recipes are not at all complicated. And all ingredients are readily available in most parts of the world today. So in terms of authenticity the book is lacking a bit in terms of the choice of recipes included. Still, I don't see a reason to seek out an out of print book if you just want a standard Italian cookbook.

If you want to get the book second hand here are some advice on editions: The book was originally published in 1977 and saw its second edition in 1990 and then a reprint in 2005. It seems that the 1990 and 2005 editions are largely similar since they have the same number of pages. So you can safely order the 1990 edition, but not earlier.

This cookbook is wonderful for anybody really interested in authentic Italian food. The recipies are clear, even for a novice like me. My particular favorites are the Spring and Winter pastasauces. Experienced cooks (like my partner) can experiment with the more complicated recipies. Some recipies have images to clarify techniques. I can thoroughly recommend this book.

Fine Art of Italian Cooking is a truly beautiful book. I looked through it thoroughly, and it certainly appears to cover
every aspect of fine Italian Cooking. If anyone wanted something better, in the way of a reference, I would be hard-put to know where they would find it. Unfortunately. I will not be working with the book. I purchased it as a gift for a friend.
I know she will enjoy it, and her family, friends and neighbors will all be the beneficiaries of her gastronomic master-
pieces. This book was purchased at the Amazon Marketplace which I assume qualifies as an Amazon Verified Purchase.

I've loved everything I've made from The Fine Art of Italian Cooking, something I can't say about most cookbooks.

I bought the first edition in 1980, and right away, I found making fresh egg pasta alla Bugialli so much easier than the way another cookbook author had you go about it. Bugialli uses extra-large eggs (something I've always bought for economy's sake) and a wee bit of olive oil. Presumably due to the presence of these two ingredients, I've never had a batch of pasta go wrong when I made it the Giuliano Bugialli way. Not the case with a number of other pasta recipes I've tried.

I'm a more confident cook now than I was thirty years ago, and I know how to make enough things I like that I don't actually need to use recipes anymore. But I'm always open to learning something new. Lately I've been making new pasta sauces, as well as braising stews and pot roasts. This book has a number of recipes that employ this "low and slow" cooking method. The very nice Spezzatino alla Fiorentina is beef stew with Chianti. There's a wonderful Florentine pot roast called Stracotto alla Fiorentina. I made kind of a baked ziti using the two sauces from cannelloni con carne: one, a meat sauce whose only tomato component is a tablespoon of paste; two, a besciamella with Parmigiano-Reggiano. That was shockingly good. If I have to bring a dish to a party, this is going to be the first thing I think of for a good, long time.

This is simple cooking, really, and it gives you a good excuse to pull out the Le Creuset. Very highly recommended.