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Not so long ago, Italian food was regarded as a poor man's gruel-little more than pizza, macaroni with sauce, and red wines in a box. Here, John Mariani shows how the Italian immigrants to America created, through perseverance and sheer necessity, an Italian-American food culture, and how it became a global obsession. The book begins with the Greek, Roman, and Middle Eastern culinary traditions before the boot-shaped peninsula was even called "Italy," then takes readers on a journey through Europe and across the ocean to America alongside the poor but hopeful Italian immigrants who slowly but surely won over the hearts and minds of Americans by way of their stomachs. Featuring evil villains such as the Atkins diet and French chefs, this is a rollicking tale of how Italian cuisine rose to its place as the most beloved fare in the world, through the lives of the people who led the charge. With savory anecdotes from these top chefs and restaurateurs: - Mario Batali- Danny Meyer- Tony Mantuano- Michael Chiarello- Giada de Laurentiis- Giuseppe Cipriani- Nigella LawsonAnd the trials and triumphs of these restaurants:- Da Silvano- Spiaggia- Bottega- Union Square Cafe- Maialino- Rao's- Babbo- Il Cantinori
This is a delightfully rich book which might also serve as a history of the United States as seen from the perspective of food.While it is understandable that Mariani would spend considerable space on New York City and even Los Angeles, I would have appreciated more about the role of Italian food in the areas between the two coasts.Occasionally Mariani adds recipes at the end of chapters. Yummie!Mariani is not well served by his proofreader(s) at Palgrave Macmillan who allowed such blunders as the following. Page 50 provides an annoying repetition: "Originally it had been set up set up just to serve the clients of a bordello in the building." Page 94 has a sentence with two past tenses: "... Americans did not see the insult because they had were so fascinated by the lifestyle." Page 133 renames the United States: "Once Americans accepted drier wines, the Unites States would become a wine-drinking nation." Finally on p. 182 an important "of" is dropped: "... photographers recreated the paparazzi's black-and-white flashbulb photos the 1950s and shot models..."