[Sca-cooks] DaVinci and Martino was Happy about Scappi

[Johnna Holloway]

I am afraid that DaVinci's Kitchen didn't meet my standards.
A bibliography was promised on a web site. Then they decided
not to publish the bibliography at all.
I actually corresponded with the author about some of his sources
and where he got certain facts. The upshot was that he couldn't remember 
what
the sources were. I mean really!

One of the most hilarious things that I came across in the book was
this quote:

"The chronicler Claudio Benporat, writing about 1500, describes one
of the more elaborate banquets for the pope:  " on page 103.

I was really amused by this because I have corresponded with Claudio
Benporat and as far as I know he is alive and well and living in Bologna.
He's a very prominent Italian food historian in fact.
Even if he has died, I doubt that he transported himself back to 1500.
Yet here we have him credited for a banquet in 1500?!?

This is like they say really funny or really sad.
And in any case I wouldn't trust this book at all.

-------------

The University of California Press published  The Art of Cooking.
It's by Parzen and is good English version of the 15th c. Martino  
manuscript.
I will warn you that the "fifty modernized recipes by acclaimed Italian 
chef Stefania Barzini."
do contain potatoes, cherry tomatoes, red pepper, etc.
I mean here when they say modernized, it really means modernized!

For the money I still think people ought to buy Italian Cuisine: A 
Cultural History by
Capatti and Montanari. It's by Columbia University Press which also 
published Pasta by
Silvano Serventi and Francoise Sabban. Both of those are excellent books 
and good food
histories.

Johnnae (playing librarian)


Maria Buchanan wrote:
> Hey all.  What's everyone's view on the book Art of Cooking: The First Modern Cookery Book?  I bought it recently and haven't gotten it yet, but I'm waiting a little impatiently.  I also recently bought a book called DaVinci's Kitchen, which is really good, and one called The Renaissance of Italian cooking, which I'm also waiting for.
> I'm really enjoying DaVinci's Kitchen.  I'm hoping the other two are good.  Anyone have them?
> Maria
>
>   
>