Francesco da Mosto follows his bestselling books on Venice and Italy with his personal quest for the authentic flavours and food of Venice. In this superbly illustrated book Francesco invites us into his family's kitchen in his 16th-century Palazzo in the heart of the city where he acts as the perfect guide to the unique culinary character of traditional Venetian cooking. Francesco shows us how to prepare 150 classic Venetian recipes ranging from Antipasti, sauces, soups and fish, to meats, pasta and puddings. He demonstrates how Venetian food is a fabulous fusion of ingredients brought together over centuries as merchants and traders travelled the Mediterranean. The ancient broeto (stock) and mollusc soups testify to this, as does the richness and variety of dishes based on fish, roasts, grills, tasty deep fried delicacies and sauces. Each chapter is introduced with the history and origins of the recipes and throughout there are personal reminiscences by Francesco of his first encounters with his favourite dishes. As Francesco is keen to tell, his passion for cooking authentic Venetian food comes from home: 'When I start talking about cooking, it is impossible to forget my father, his love and imagination for all things culinary. He has never feared unusual combinations of ingredients and seasonings, and I have always been a willing guinea pig.'

The modern twenty-first century kitchen has an array of time saving equipment for preparing a meal: a state of the art stove and refrigerator, a microwave oven, a food processor, a blender and a variety of topnotch pots, pans and utensils. We take so much for granted as we prepare the modern meal – not just in terms of equipment, but also the ingredients, without needing to worry about availability or seasonality. We cook with gas or electricity – at the turn of the switch we have instant heat. But it wasn’t always so. Just step back a few centuries to say the 1300s and we’d find quite a different kitchen, if there was one at all. We might only have a fireplace in the main living space of a small cottage. If we were lucky enough to have a kitchen, the majority of the cooking would be done over an open hearth, we’d build a fire of wood or coal and move a cauldron over the fire to prepare a stew or soup. A drink might be heated or kept warm in a long-handled saucepan, set on its own trivet beside the fire. Food could be fried in a pan, grilled on a gridiron, or turned on a spit. We might put together a small improvised oven for baking. Regulating the heat of the open flame was a demanding task. Cooking on an open hearth was an all-embracing way of life and most upscale kitchens had more than one fireplace with chimneys for ventilation. One fireplace was kept burning at a low, steady heat at all times for simmering or boiling water and the others used for grilling on a spit over glowing, radiant embers. This is quite a different situation than in our modern era – unless we were out camping and cooking over an open fire. In this book Katherine McIver explores the medieval kitchen from its location and layout (like Francesco Datini of Prato two kitchens), to its equipment (the hearth, the fuels, vessels and implements) and how they were used, to who did the cooking (man or woman) and who helped. We’ll look at the variety of ingredients (spices, herbs, meats, fruits, vegetables), food preservation and production (salted fish, cured meats, cheese making) and look through recipes, cookbooks and gastronomic texts to complete the picture of cooking in the medieval kitchen. Along the way, she looks at illustrations like the miniatures from the Tacuinum Sanitatis (a medieval health handbook), as well as paintings and engravings, to give us an idea of the workings of a medieval kitchen including hearth cooking, the equipment used, how cheese was made, harvesting ingredients, among other things. She explores medieval cookbooks such works as Anonimo Veneziano, Libro per cuoco (fourtheenth century), Anonimo Toscano, Libro della cucina (fourteenth century), Anonimo Napoletano (end of thirteenth/early fourteenth century), Liber de coquina, Anonimo Medidonale, Due libri di cucina (fourteenth century), Magninus Mediolanensis (Maino de’ Maineri), Opusculum de saporibus (fourteenth century), Johannes Bockenheim, Il registro di cucina (fifteenth century), Maestro Martino’s Il Libro de arte coquinaria (fifteenth century) and Bartolomeo Sacchi, called Platina’s On Right Pleasure and Good Health (1470). This is the story of the medieval kitchen and its operation from the thirteenth-century until the late fifteenth-century.

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A self-taught culinary virtuoso, Francesco Bracali is one of Italy's top chefs. He and his brother, Luca, a sommelier, own the two-Michelin-stars restaurant Bracali in Massa Marittima, Tuscany. Once an unpretentious tavern run by their parents, the brothers turned it into a fine dining place where they revisited the region's rich gastronomic traditions in an innovative way. Their revolutionary approach--a novelty at first--today boasts international recognition. This book examines Tuscany's culinary history and analyzes the Bracali brothers' interpretation of traditional dishes and fine wine.

Francesco Mazzei hails from Calabria - the toe on Italy's boot and the region noted for producing n'duja (a spicy, spreadable pork sausage). Like n'duja, Mazzei has come to prominence in the last few years impressing fellow chefs, bloggers and critics alike. From making ice cream at his uncle's gelateria at the age of nine to working at London's prestigious Dorchester Hotel and on the pastry sections at Hakkasan and Yautcha, Mazzei has led a varied career that has straddled Rome, Edinburgh, London, Bangkok (where he opened an Italian restaurant at the Royal Sporting Club) and Calabria. He opened L'Anima in 2008, which became one of the leading lights of London's collection of Italian restaurants - 'Many lay claim to being number one Italian restaurant, but Francesco Mazzei's L'Amina has the edge' (The Observer, 2013). Signature dishes at L'Anima - such as Charcoal scallops with n'duja and salsa verde and Spit roast leg of lamb with cannellini beans and black cabbage - offer prime examples of a style that marries rustic Calabrian flavours with Modern European precision. His next project opens in Autumn 2015 with the relaunch of Sartoria in Mayfair. This, his first book, is a straightforward '80 terrific southern Italian recipes' with an introduction to the food of Southern Italy.

Based on his popular PBS TV program Avec Eric, this book follows culinary superstar Eric Ripert as he explores the culture and culinary traditions of regions around the world, then returns to his home kitchen to create dishes celebrating the bounty of each one. Mirroring the show's sense of adventure and deep appreciation for fresh, local, seasonal ingredients, this book is part travelogue, part cookbook, with 125 fresh, exciting recipes drawn from Ripert's journey through the culinary landscapes of regions from Tuscany to Sonoma to the Hudson River Valley. Food and travel photos throughout reflect Ripert's journey and highlight the inspirations behind each dish, while handwritten notes and hand-drawn illustrations give the book a uniquely personal feel.