Customer Reviews

Made in Italy: Food and Stories

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I bought the UK edition of Locatelli's Made In Italy but the US edition should be identical except the metric measurements are exchanged for American systems of measurements.

Overall speaking, the book is comprehensive and introduces what the author serves at his Locatelli restaurant in London, a little like the UK equivalent of the Babbo's owned by Mario Batali. Loctaelli serves dishes similar to what is served in a typical posh restaurant in early 21st century Milan - arguably Italy's economic centre, and thus if you are in to look for Italian-American fares like meatballs in red sauce or steak pizzaiola, Frank Pellegrino's "Rao's Cookbook" and "Rao's Recipes from the Neighborhood" would be the great alternatives instead.

Based in London now, Locatelli is northern Italian (born in Corgeno near Milan), so his section on risotto is fantastic and more comprehensive than any other "general Italian cookbooks" I have encountered including Antonio Carluccio, Mario Batali, Guy Grossi, or Frank Pellegrino. In addition, Locatelli also spends around 100 pages explaining Italian ingredients, from common ones like tomatoes to delicacies like white truffles. I am impressed with his detailed explanation on making good fresh egg pasta in particular.

A list of typical dishes in the book runs like this:

1. Antipasti: radicchio salad with button mushrooms and Gorgonzola dressing, beef carpaccio, parmesan grissini
2. Zuppa: broccoli soup with ricotta cheese dumplings, fish soup
3. Risotto: asparagus risotto, clam risotto, quail risotto
4. Pasta: linguine with pesto, tagliatelle with marinated sardines, pheasant ravioli, potato dumplings with artichoke and murazzano cheese
5. Pesce (fish): chargrilled tuna, roast brill with green olives and cherry tomatoes
6. Carne (meat): chargrilled lamb with peppers and aubergine (eggplant) puree, veal chop with artichoke and new potatoes, roast piegon, black truffle and garlic puree
7. Dolci (desserts): strawberry and mango lasagne, tiramisu with banana and liquorice ice-cream, amaretto gelato, amaretti and and other biscuits

You will notice as I mentioned above, from this list a lot of the dishes will be restaurant grade, but there are also many simple ones you can try. The only disappointment for me is that seafood dishes are largely absent when compared with other Italy cookbooks. It may be because Corgeno is near the Swiss border and landlocked.

You may find that just like a majority of Italian cooks and foodies, Locatelli belongs to the Slow Food movement, thus some of his comments will be very stridently against the "normal" foods - certainly in my opinion far more outspoken than Batali. Still, compared with some of the extreme voices from the Californian food scene he may not be so resolute as to putting you off.

I highly recommend this book if you are a serious cook and want to finesse your Italian cooking skills. At the least it provides good reading materials for armchair cooks like me. I have known from the online forums a lot of American foodies are interested to source the UK edition even before the American edition was published, so I gather this book should appeal to a lot of US audiences. If you find the book too foreign in tone and expensive at US$60.00, Mario Batali's "The Babbo Cookbook" provides a more American and more cost effective alternative.

I'm a cook who studied and worked in Italy. Therefore, I can tell you it is very difficult to find a cookbook that conveys the emotion, passion and devotion the Italians have for their cuisine(s), even in Italy. Therefore, the arrival of Giorgio Locatelli's book on American shores is an event to be celebrated.
Chef Giorgio does a fantastic job describing ingredients and recipes and includes histories and anecdotes from his own life, making this book more than just a cookbook; it is a rare gem. It is a gift from a celebrated Italian chef who evokes the experiences of Italian food just as his countrymen (and women) see it, taste it, smell it, eat it, live it, and, more importantly, share it.
Although many recipes are restaurant-grade and can seem intimidating to the amateur cook, there are so many more dishes any experienced home cook can make at home. Plus, Chef Giorgio speaks to the reader with enough confidence so as to make the most intricate dishes "do-able" in your own home kitchen.
Made In Italy also reads like a wonderful tale and you will spend lots of time reading it on your couch in between selecting which recipes to make. You will really start to relate to the chef as well as to the ingredients he writes at length about.
By far, this book, along with Gillian Riley's Oxford Companion to Italian Food AND the classic The Silver Spoon are must-haves for any true Italian cook - amateur or professional. If you're new to cooking Italian food or cooking in general, I suggest you get all three books. Start cooking with The Silver Spoon (just like many Italian brides and young Italian professionals have), graduate up to Made In Italy, and always refer to the Oxford Companion!
Remember, Italian cuisine is a style, not a technique!

This books describes Italian Italian food, not American Italian food. So much less focus on cheese, tomatoes, and pasta - but those bases are covered too. The book is quite wordy, but the text is well written so I don't mind actually. We get a little info on different regions, a lot of info on different ingredients, and a good number of recipes. Really a pleasant book that can be read as well as cooked.

I really love this book. I have watched the tv show with Tony and Giorgio on BBC food. Giorgio have collected the heart and soul of Italian cooking in this book. I would recommend it to all who like the Italian cusine.
It has small lite dishes to the more complex dinner partys. For all who love great food this is a must.

Ciao from The Norwegian Cook.

Giorgio is one of my fave chefs on Foxtel in Australia. I like the way he explains how to make the dishes and the stories in the book. Just imagine him talking on the tv. Real fun! The book is really heavy. Not only does it have a lot of papers, but it also contains tons of information too. The design of the book is also nice. Clean and easy to read. It's really worth it to buy and make it part of your cooking book collection. I haven't finished reading it yet and am looking forward to it this weekend.

My husband and I received this book as a wedding present. I'm sure the inspiration for buying this book for us was because of our name (also Locatelli, though I don't know offhand if my husband is a relative of Giorgio's), but this book has quickly become one of my favorite cookbooks. Absolutely beautiful to look at, I sometimes just flip through it and resist the urge to salivate. This book has also taught me a lot about Italian food and cooking - about which I knew very little before meeting my husband and his family - and provides explanations on cooking techniques. For example, I learned why my success rate for properly cooked risotto has been so low and how to correct the mistakes I had been making. As others have pointed out, some of the recipes are a bit advanced and you may not be able to make all the dishes in the book. This book is filled with interesting history and great stories, though, so even if you don't plan on cooking any of the dishes, anyone who loves food will surely find something about this book to enjoy.

I purchased this book for my sister-in-law for Christmas. We lived in London for a while and are familiar with Locanda Locatelli, the author's restaurant, and my brother and sis-in-law love Italy and the food, so this was thought to be a good fit. I read through the book before I wrapped it, and I was amazed at how comprehensive it is. There are wonderful stories and all kinds of insight into details of individual ingredients. It is absorbing and I could easily get lost in it, even before thinking about trying some recipes. I think if you are looking for the answer to any Italian food/ingredient/method question, it has got to be in here!

If you love food, and the preparation and appreciation of all that goes into it, you will like this book. There are gorgeous photos in it that make the mouth water. And empathetic photos of the people who love to create good food. Locatelli's descriptions of his beginnings as a chef, and the trials and tribulations that made him the outstanding chef that he is, are informative and touching. He pulls the reader into that "conviviality" that makes a great restaurant, and makes us appreciate the love and attention that creates a great meal. I have yet to try out the recipes, but they look doable and delicious. These won't be your quickie meals, but they look like recipes you will enjoy making and savoring.

If you are interested in Italian cooking there are simpler books out there. This book is too advanced. The recipes are not accessable, at least to me. I have many other Italian cookbooks and the recipes in those are generally very simple. I have not had any success with this book.