Mr. Pellegrino
Artusi - Biography
Writer and gourmet, he is
the recognized father of the
Italian cuisine.
He was born the 4th August
The 25th January of that
year he and his family were
victims of Passatore assault
in
Forlimpopoli; they
were victims of a theft,
humiliated and violated, the
Artusi’s family were
transferred to Florence
where took again the
commercial activity.
Thanks to the successful
activity, in 1865 Mr.
Pellegrino Artusi left the
commerce and started to
dedicate to his passions as
literature and gastronomy.
He wrote a biography of
Foscolo and a critique of 30
letters of Giusti, works
that didn’t have particular
success.
In 1891 he published “The cook science and the art of good eating”, cuisine and collected recipes manual; it was the result of the knowledge acquired in some of his travels in the North and the Middle Italy and experimentations about these recipes evolved by cooks of his house, Francesco Ruffilli and Marietta Sabatini. Suddenly the book became very popular, summarized in the 14 editions printed until the Artusi’s death (Florence, 30 March 1911).
The book contains 790
recipes, from soups to
liqueurs, hors d’oeuvres,
main courses and desserts.
The structure of the book is
didactic and recipes are
with reflections and
anecdote of the author.
“The cook science and the
art of good eating” formed a
watershed in the gastronomic
culture of that epoch.
Artusi created a dignity for
that “mosaic” of regional
traditions, and developed,
for the first time, a
gastronomic “national”
tradition.
“The cook science and the
art of good eating”, is
still today the text of
reference of the Italian
home cooking, it was reprint
in a lot of editions and
translated in all the main
languages.