Pellegrino Artusi (1820-1911) was an Italian businessman and writer and is credited world-wide as the Inventor of Italian Cuisine. Originally a silk merchant, Artusi brought his passion for science, health, and food to the entire nation of Italy.
Murtha Baca's translations include several manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci, An Italian Renaissance Sextet: Six Tales in Historical Context (edited by Lauro Martines) and Pellegrino Artusi's Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.
Luigi Ballerini is an Italian poet and Professor Emeritus at the University of California Los Angeles.

"Artusi's book stands with Manzon's great novel, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed), and the music of Verdi as works that not only are great unto themselves but represented a sense of identity and self-worth to a nascent country with no nationalistic feeling... Artusi chose to give Italians their definition by telling them how they ate... Anyone who seeks to know Italian food avoids Artusi at his or her peril. He is the fountainhead of modern Italian cookery."

--Fred Plotkin, Gastronomica

"One of the defining documents of what it means to be Italian."

--John Allemang, The Globe and Mail

"A landmark work in Italian culture."

--Darby Macnab, Tandem

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Pub date: 2003-12-27

Length: 653 pages