{"product_id":"italian-cuisine-a-cultural-history-arts-and-traditions-of-the-table-perspectives-on-culinary-history-9780231122320","title":"Italian Cuisine: A Cultural History (Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History)","description":"\u003cp\u003eItaly  the country with a hundred cities and a thousand bell towers  is also the country with a hundred cuisines and a thousand recipes. Its great variety of culinary practices reflects a history long dominated by regionalism and political division  and has led to the common conception of Italian food as a mosaic of regional customs rather than a single tradition. Nonetheless  this magnificent new book demonstrates the development of a distinctive  unified culinary tradition throughout the Italian peninsula.  Alberto Capatti and Massimo Montanari uncover a network of culinary customs  food lore  and cooking practices  dating back as far as the Middle Ages  that are identifiably Italian:  o Italians used forks 300 years before other Europeans  possibly because they were needed to handle pasta  which is slippery and dangerously hot.  o Italians invented the practice of chilling drinks and may have invented ice cream.  o Italian culinary practice influenced the rest of Europe to place more emphasis on vegetables and less on meat.  o Salad was a distinctive aspect of the Italian meal as early as the sixteenth century.  The authors focus on culinary developments in the late medieval  Renaissance  and Baroque eras  aided by a wealth of cookbooks produced throughout the early modern period. They show how Italys culinary identities emerged over the course of the centuries through an exchange of information and techniques among geographical regions and social classes. Though temporally  spatially  and socially diverse  these cuisines refer to a common experience that can be described as Italian. Thematically organized around key issues in culinary history and beautifully illustrated  Italian Cuisine is a rich history of the ingredients  dishes  techniques  and social customs behind the Italian food we know and love today.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45666360328245,"sku":"ByrdShop_0231122322","price":22.68,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780231122320.jpg?v=1782429700","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/italian-cuisine-a-cultural-history-arts-and-traditions-of-the-table-perspectives-on-culinary-history-9780231122320","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}