regional and international

This is a most enjoyable book, covering the highways and byways of the food of Italy. It is not a cook book. It is a book about a culture, or rather the agglomeration of cultures that is Italian food. Highly recommended to the armchair or the actual traveller, and the lover of Italian life and culture.

Root's The Food of France is a highly entertaining classic. The Food of Italy is slightly less so.

As with The Food of France, Root gives us here a survey of the food of an entire country. The country here is, of course, Italy. The book details the varieties and specialities of each region in Italy, which each make up a chapter in the book.

As with The Food of France, Root examines not only the specialities and food of a particular region, he discusses also what it is in terms of taste, ingredients and cooking methods that makes a particular dish distinctly of that region. Beyond that, he also examines the history, geography and native food resources of a region in considering what it is that has gone into making the food of that region distinctly so. He studs each examination with charming details and anecdotes. And he does this all with methodical meticulousness.

In each chapter, Root will start with examining the history, geography and available food resources of the region. Each chapter is divided roughly into the various major cities and districts that comprise the particular region being discussed. The food of each city and district is then discussed, starting with the savoury dishes and ending the sweet. Each chapter finishes off with a discussion of the wine and alcoholic beverages of that region.

Mostly, he tells it with inimitable style. However, unlike The Food of France, there were times with The Food of Italy when I felt it a bit of a slog to read. Quite literally from time to time I just felt like I was wading through a listing of descriptions of different types of food. In the chapter on Liguria, for example, Root discusses x number of dishes in a section headed antipasti and entrées, then x number of dishes in a section headed soups, and so on through sections on fish, meat, poultry, game, vegetables, and finally, desserts.

However, you can't argue though with the immensity of his knowledge, and the book deserves 5 stars alone just for that. Ultimately, if you are interested at all interested in reading about food, your collection would not be complete without this, and his other classic: The Food of France.

My Personal Rating Scale:
5 stars: Engaging, well-written, highly entertaining or informative, thought provoking, pushes the envelope in one or more ways, a classic.
4 stars: Engaging, well-written, highly entertaining or informative. Book that delivers well in terms of its specific genre or type, but does not do more than that.
3 stars: Competent. Does what it sets out to do competently, either on its own terms on within the genre, but is nothing special. May be clichéd but is still entertaining.
2 stars: Fails to deliver in various respects. Significantly clichéd. Writing is poor or pedestrian. Failed to hold my attention.
1 star: Abysmal. Fails in all respects.

Imagine eating delicious meals in every region of Italy, at someone else's expense, for years on end. That's pretty much what Waverly Root did in his long career as a journalist. And the result is a classic work about Italian food.

There are maps showing the food specialties of every Italian region and the best cities to visit for great eating. Each city is rated on a map, so you can easily create your own travel itinerary.

And there's a long chapter for each region, describing it special food and wine. Just the thing to feed daydreams.