I like the recipes in this book. They give a nice cross-section of Northern Italian cooking, and are picked as much for being interesting as typical. Also, the stories and remniscences are those of a first-rate memoirist. The problem is that the two of them combined together make for a somewhat overly flowery reading.

I struggled with the star rating on this one -- it really is a worthwhile book to have, but it has serious flaws, the most glaring being the deliberate omissions of the regions of Trentino-Alto Adige and Liguria; the author's logic is that Trentino food is largely Austrian and that of Liguria more southern Italian in style, not helping the reader to know northern Italy, but that seems to me to be an overly romantic way of looking at it. I don't really like it when cookbook authors pare down their work for reasons of accessibility or percieved consistency, because the book loses a segment of the whole picture.

It's a pity, really, because it probably is one of the better books for understanding the food of northern Italy. The flowery tone of the book that I do not particularly enjoy actually does appeal to some, and the personal stories do give a context to the book that more technical cookbooks lack. If it was a more expensive book, I probably wouldn't recommend it, but it's a little like the idea of a film reviewer saying "wait for the DVD" -- it's not that pricey, so grab a copy and see what you think. (And I do like the Modenese pancetta-and-egg scramble in the book -- very tasty.)

As I write this review, the book is out-of-stock. I want to share this book with everyone, so I am hoping that my review will change things around. First of all, the recipes in this book are complex -- but -- there are books that are much more challenging. Haute Mexican and Japanese cuisine are more difficult, the first because it grew out of a class culture where the food was cooked by maids the second because it is so unlike western food. There are things in this book that are exotic, even to Bostonians where "the Italian North End" was made such an imprint on the city. There is a pasta based on yeast raised dough that is wonderful on a winter's night when snow is falling. There are superb chicken dishes and magnificent desserts. This one of only two cookbooks that I have wanted to go through, page by page, recipe by recipe, and cook everything.