14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shootout in the Forum. Two excellent Books at the Same Time, December 27, 2003
This review is from: In a Roman Kitchen: Timeless Recipes from the Eternal City (Hardcover)
Two books on Roman cooking have appeared within the last eighteen (18) months, which gives us a golden opportunity to proof one against the other to find the better book. The first published last year is , `Cooking the Roman Way' by David Downie. The second, more recently published book is the current subject `In a Roman Kitchen: Timeless Recipes from the Eternal City' by Jo Bettoja.
In general, Downie's book appears to be based more on restaurante, trattoria, and osteria recipes while Bettoja seems to rely more on home cooking recipes. Still, there is a significant overlap of recipe names. I had no trouble at all finding five recipes with the same traditional Italian name, although the English translation of the name may have been a little different. I give high marks to both authors for giving the Italian names of all dishes in both the text and the index.
I compared the recipes for five dishes:
Gnocchi di Semolino alla Romana
Spaghetti alla Carbonara
Cipolline in Agrodolce alla Romana
Carciofi alla Giudia
Frittata con Zucchini
Although no pair of recipes was the same, I can find virtually nothing in these five recipes which would suggest that one author was presenting consistently superior recipes. I was slightly annoyed with Downie for specifying white coctail onions in the Cipolline recipe, especially since I have no trouble finding cipolline in my local Pennsylvania megamart. My conclusion that Downie relies on the Trattoria and Bettoja relies on the home is in the sources they cite for their recipes. Both appear to give equal time to the influence of the Jewish quarter on Roman cooking.
In Bettoja's case, the focus seems to be on a large number of recipes for each major type of Roman dish. She has, for example, more pasta, artichoke, and fava bean recipes than Downie, and also more dessert recipes. This is ironic since Downie controverts one of my hero Mario Batali's claims that Italians do not go in for sweets.
In contrast, Downie includes many seminally Roman recipes which Bettoja simply ignores. He has excellent recipes for making both Pizza Bianco, a certifiable Roman speciality, and fresh fettucini, including sound recommendations on making the fettucini completely by hand and with the assistance of power mixers and power pasta rolling machines. Most surprising of all is that Downie includes the recipe for Gnocchi di Patate while Bettoja does not. My understanding from Mario is that this is a Roman speciality and every trattoria in Rome serves it on Thursday. Alternately, Claudia Roden identifies it as a northern (Friuli) Italian speciality. Since Downie specifically cites potato gnocchi as the Roman canonical dish for Thursday and thereby agrees with Mario, I have to assume that while the dish may be promenant outside Rome, it is certainly a distinctively Roman dish as well.
Bettoja is a teacher who runs her own culinary school in Rome while Downie is a culinary journalist, so it surprises me that it is Downie who has the superior sidebars on some basic techniques such as how to clean an artichoke (sidebars with step by step photographs) and how to roast and skin sweet peppers.
Even though Bettoja's book is later and even though the books have identical list prices and almost identical page counts, Downie's book is much richer in the quality and quantity of it's photographs, almost all with useful captions. I generally do not count good photography to a cookbook's credit, but in the case of a book dedicated to so photogenic a location as Rome, I must make an exception here. For the identical price, Downie and his photographer and editors have simply done a much better job. Downie's book is also richer in sidebars on general Roman and Italian culinary matters. His headnotes for individual dishes are also richer in explaining the history of many dishes such as Fettucini Alfredo and Fettucini alla Papalina.
In the battle of the blurbs, Downie has Mario and Carol Field while Bettoja has Lidia Bastianich and Frances Mayes on her back cover. I think that's a tie.
I would buy both of these books, even with the rather substantial overlap in named dishes. The overlap is actually a plus for amateur foodie scholars, as it gives one the sense of exactly how different two sources can be with exactly the same dish. Bettoja is a great source for pasta recipes and Roman desserts, while Downie has much greater success at evoking the Roman ambiance and in covering deeper techniques. Downie also wins the points on domestic sources for flour and other Italian specialities. Bettoja rather quixotically gives us the telephone numbers of companies in Rome. Not very useful unless you plan to visit Rome in the near future.
Both books are recommended. If you need to choose one, I would pick Downie's book.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Do As This Roman Does, March 17, 2003
This review is from: In a Roman Kitchen: Timeless Recipes from the Eternal City (Hardcover)
By Bill Marsano. Jo Bettoja (pronounced bet-TOY-a) went to Italy from
Georgia in the early 1970s as a model; she stayed to marry and become one
of the great ambassadors of Italian cooking. By now she's a kind of
culinary-cultural monument.
This is her latest and most delightful book--it fails to get a fifth star
through no fault of her own--because it focuses on Roman cooking (the fad
for the rather overrated Tuscan is abating at last) and because it is so
personal. You can feel it from her opening sentence: "My home is in Rome,
not far from the Trevi Fountain, just a short walk to the marketplace."
Isak Dinesen's "I had a farm in Africa" is another memorable opener, but
with Jo you know you're going to eat. And she takes you right to her
marketplace, and through Roman traditions and foibles and lore, while
piling on the recipes.
Which are not all Roman, by the way. Romans have, over the years,
grudgingly admitted that some other Italians can cook, at least a little,
and so what we have here are real Roman recipes and adopted Roman recipes.
Pastas are especially abundant because no Italians are so crazy about pasta
as Romans. There's also a nice selection of egg dishes (legacy of Ancient
Rome) and fritti misti or mixed fries, a more modern Roman passion.
In the tradition of cookbrook writers of her era, Jo doesn't discuss wine,
so allow me to recommend Rome's white, light and beguiling Frascati, which
entranced Americans during the postwar "sunny Italy" tourist boom. Back
then (the 1960s), Frascati was merely popular; today it's a quality wine.
Look for Fontana Candida's Santa Teresa and Terre dei Griffi; Villa
Simone's Vigneto Filonardi and Vigna dei Preti; Falesco's Vitiana; Colle
Picchioni; and Conte Zandotti's San Paolo.
So--why no fifth star? Poor design, deserving of a sound smack or two with
a wooden spoon. No, make that a rolling pin. Thinking to introduce color to
the pages, the designer chose a light mustard-yellow for many of the recipe
headings. Sorry, but it tends to blend in and so is hard to read. The
ingredients lists use a smallish italic that also fades. The body type is a
fuss-budget's dream, distracting with its silly, swishy little details.
Forty years in publishing have taught me that type's job is to convey
information legibly and easily, not to call attention to itself.
By the way: Some travelers may recognize the name. That's because Jo is the
wife of Angelo Bettoja, owner of one of Rome's finest hotel groups. Their
five family-run hotels, centrally located and well priced, are, like this
book, full of Roman warmth.
--Bill Marsano is an award-winning writer on wine and spirits, travel and
other subjects.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Delicious recipes!, March 3, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: In a Roman Kitchen: Timeless Recipes from the Eternal City (Hardcover)
I just returned home from a week in Rome with my husband. It was our first trip there and we just fell in love with the city, its people and of course, the food! I decided I would surprise my husband with some authentic recipes and bought Jo Bettoja's book. So far, I've made the Saltimbocca and the Artichoke Pie that were both fantastic! We topped the meal off with a delicious tea cake. The photos she uses throughout the book and her personal anecdotets on Rome are charming. I recommend this book to everyone!
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