Pellegrino Artusi is the Dante Alighieri of Italian cuisine, the master reference of Italian cooking. His ‘Science in the Kitchen’ – first published in 1891 and with over 90 editions continues to be popular and reprinted regularly to this day. However, its importance transcends the bounds of the kitchen – Italian sociology and history must grant to Artusi a seat in their hall of fame.

Science in the Kitchen gave to the developing Italian middle class an emblem and a symbol of identification. In fact Artusi makes it clear that his book is only for those who can afford to buy the ingredients of his recipes – ingredients not at all extravagant by today’s standards but limited at the time to the middle class and up.

Two important collateral influences helped make Science in the Kitchen a milestone in Italian history, namely compulsory education, which made Italian understood at large, and the gradual rise of Italy as a nation in the popular consciousness.

The nation of Italy was born in 1861. Yet, for the overwhelming majority of her inhabitants, the change from one kingdom (or dukedom or papal dominion) to an Italian state meant little or nothing. In 1861 only 2% of the population spoke Italian. The Venosta brothers, for example, went to Naples in the 1860s to conduct an inquiry on the conditions of the city. When they spoke Italian people thought they were English.

The key ‘mission’ of Artusi’s guide is stated in the title, ‘Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well’ with subtitle, ‘Practical Manual for Families’. We have here a very Artusian trinity of interconnected values, namely good food as a key to good health and the value of moderation as expressed in good taste. We can also add good humor as a subset of good taste.

‘Science in the Kitchen’ begins as follows, "Cooking is a capricious art (bricconcella)– often and willingly it upsets us but it also rewards us because, each time you have overcome a difficulty, you experience satisfaction and can sing to victory…. Beware of books that deal with this art – most often they are wrong or incomprehensible especially Italian books - the French are a little better and you can get some useful notion from them but only if you can cook already…"

At first Artusi collected the material for his personal use - friends and acquaintances prompted him to publish it. Years later, in the preface to the 14^th edition he says "… I like to think that most users found my dishes agreeable and that few, for my luck, cursed me, due to some consequent stomach ailment or other phenomena that decency prevents me from naming…. But lest you may take me for a glutton or big-eater due to my interest in things culinary, I affirm the contrary. I love the Beautiful and the Good wherever they be found and I am disgusted at seeing nature’s bounty mishandled, spoiled or misused."

Though large in volume and number of recipes, Science in the Kitchen does not pretend to cover the immense variety of Italian cuisine. It confines itself to the dishes prepared along an approximate strip connecting Bologna with Florence. Today we would call it the axis of cooking.

Artusi’s genius and success consist in having found the right way to "express with Italian taste" and suitable words such a "delicate" subject. He builds on a long record of culinary writing and lore. The idea of cooking as an art descends from a tradition extending back to the 1600, when Bartolomeo Stefani, master cook of the Duke of Mantova published in 1662, "The Art Of Cooking Well For The Purpose Of Instructing The Less Proficient In This Laudable Profession. Where Also It Is Taught How To Make Compositions, Appetizing Aromas, Sauces, Gelatins, Tarts Etc." In homage to this community-spirited predecessor Artusi names one of his soups, "Zuppa alla Stefani".

In 1560 Domenico Romoli, published a cook book with the title, "The Singular Doctrine". And in 1742 D. Concina published "Antique And Modern Discipline Of The Roman Church During Lent, Including Historical Memories ("memorie storiche") On The Use Of Chocolate While Fasting".

In an 18^th century publication you will find the recipe for, "Ox prepared royally or fashionably" (bue alla reale o alla moda), extracted from the cook book, "Piedmontese Cook Driven To The Ultimate Tasting Experience And Culinary Perfection" (ridotto all’ultimo gusto e perfezione).

The connection between good food, good eating habits and health recurs frequently in Artusi’s recipes, special instructions or inserted notes. The key idea is that science, health-care and nutrition are inseparable contributors to a guide for what and how we eat. Sometimes the counsels are found in proverbs frequently reported in the book, e.g. "Un pasto buono ed uno mezzano mantengono l’uomo sano" (An abundant meal and a moderate one keep a man healthy).

Here too tradition and popular wisdom have ancient historical links. In the 12^th century Arnaldo da Villanova published his "Extremely Useful Work To Preserve Health". 100 years later Ugo Benzi published "Rules Of Health And Of The Nature Of Foods". The most popular treatise of good health is Alvise Cornaro’s "Conversations on a Sober Life", a very readable and a treasure trove of simple rules for (as we would call it today), a holistic approach to life with special emphasis on nutrition. His treatise became quickly very popular - it was translated in many languages, including English and can be purchased even today. Just the following simple truth (out of Carnaro’s ‘Conversations’) if widely understood, would debunk the majority of the claims made by the pharmaceutical industry, "…no man can be a perfect physician of others but of himself…. Because only the individual can arrive at knowing well his own make-up and sensing his most occult properties through various experimentations - and (therefore) he will know which wine and which type of food are best for his stomach".

Artusi is the last cuisine writer to mention the ‘secrets’. ‘Secrets’ were various recipes or remedies created or invented by the alchemist scientists of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance or the Baroque. In a recipe he tells us that the people called baking soda a "secret". It was used to soften garbanzo beans (ceci). Which, incidentally (the ceci), were a medieval answer to Viagra. Giovanni Tatti, in his "Treatise On Agriculture" says, "Ceci (garbanzo beans) …much increase the sex drive (lussuria) and have an extraordinary effect on men when they drink the broth without previously eating anything else" (…quando si bee a disgiuno).

Artusi’s cuisine counsels moderation and it is the antithesis of the ‘All You Can Eat’ philosophy. He draws particular inspiration from the Tuscan style of cooking, which implies a measure of frugality and intelligent parsimony. For example, the soup, a building block of Tuscan cuisine, becomes a mystic symbol of sobriety (today we would call it ‘sensible eating’), "….a soup holds seven virtues, because it extinguishes hunger, and thirst, it favors sleep, it promotes digestion and intelligence, is gentle to the teeth and brightens the cheeks". And in promoting the preparation of Florentine frittatas, Artusi recommends "Do not use more than one egg in making them, so that a mathematician wanting to give an example of a geometrical figure that has surface but no width or depth, may use as an example one of your frittatas….. Nor should they be eaten in big mouthfuls… otherwise you may be called a wolf as a Milanese was once called due to the fast pace with which he was gobbling his frittata". That the Milanese were great eaters was proverbial even in the Middle Ages, as we find in a letter written to the poet Petrarca, dated Jan 2, 1369.

The warning about the frittata also points to two different gastronomic Italies, the lean cuisine found to the left of the Apennines, based on olive oil, and the cuisine of the Po Valley (Val Padana), founded on butter and lard and on a propensity for the heavy. It is meaningful that the language of the Florentine cuisine is rich in diminutives, e.g. ‘brodino = light soup’, ‘biscottini = small biscotti’, ‘zuccherini = tiny sugar lumps’ etc. Whereas the Padan culinary language abounds in superlatives, e.g. "minestrone = big minestra = big soup). Artusi says, "In Tuscany, due to climate but also due our stomachs being used to it, we give to every plate a sense of lightness and where possible the character of liquidity…"

According to him climate affects the rating and consumption of food. After describing a recipe of a certain pasta-soup, he adds "…to digest it, this pasta-soup (minestra di tagliatelle), you need (to breathe) an air like that of Romagna … The Romagnoli, partly due to climate and partly to habit need food of much substance…"

Which brings us to one key lexical distinction absent in English, the Tuscan type soup ("zuppa") and the Padan-Romagnan soup ("minestra"). It’s in the ‘minestra’ that the consumer will find ravioli and tortellini and derivatives, not in the ‘zuppa’.

Artusi was born in 1820 in Romagna, ever the Italian hot bed of Italian hot heads, including radicals, anarchists, communists and of course Mussolini. A life-long bachelor, Artusi moved to Florence where he became a banker and a currency-exchanger by profession. In Florence he proceeded to "wash his literary laundry in the river Arno" (lavare i panni in Arno), imitating the Italian literary giant of the 19^th century, Alessandro Manzoni. Consequently the Italian of "La Scienza in Cucina" has an amusing Florentine ring – amusing, that is, to non Florentines.

In summary, ‘Science in the Kitchen’ incorporates, updates and blends culinary traditions into one comprehensive manual suited to the new tone of life in Italy in the 1880s. This was the reason of its immediate success. But the book also conveys in a unique way a feeling of Italianness that eludes a concise definition but is sensed by the reader. Hence the enduring success and popularity.

Finally, I share with Pellegrino Artusi the weakness of being a hopeless cat lover. He dedicated the first edition of ‘Science in the Kitchen’ to his two cats and says, "To two of my best friends with white coats, Biancani and Sibillone, I dedicate my book. To you who, devoid of envy or resentment, without ever getting bored, have always kept me company; to you who, when I was in the kitchen testing and preparing my recipes, brushing against my legs and with your tail up, were anxious to be the first to review my products. To you who, members of a noble strain cannot be accused of treason – and if, rarely, committed a minor theft, you were exclusively tempted by the irresistible attraction of a piece of cheese or a morsel of chicken. To you who, with your amity give lessons to men in brotherly love. To you who, while keeping yourselves trim and handsome, never think of snares and subterfuges. To you finally, who with your performances and nimble and pleasing acrobatics have often and deeply amused me and never made me feel un-loved, I dedicated my book."

‘Science in the Kitchen ‘is a wonderful Italian classic. Read it for cooking for learning and for fun.

Jimmie Moglia

-Shakespeare's Views on the News-

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