The Bottom Line
- Good recipes, authentic for the most part
- Great photography of Italy and Italian food customs
- Honest commentary about the attitudes toward food in Italy
- Sometimes, Jamie gets it wrong
Description
- Jamie's Italy is a cookbook that takes you on a road trip to discovering Italy's culinary landscape.
- The recipes are as authentic as they can be to be practical for foreigners, and the instructions easy to understand.
- If the beautiful photography doesn't make you want to leave for Italy this very day, then fuggedaboutit.
Guide Review - Jamie's Italy - by Jamie Oliver - Book Review
Along the way, Jamie becomes somewhat confounded by the Italian rigidity toward how food is prepared and cooked. He never quite resolves the issue--never seeing that those who insist upon absolutely fresh, local, and hand-raised ingredients treated traditionally create a wall toward new food ideas by default. I've found that you just have to live with that insistance toward tradition; Italian cuisine isn't broken, so there's no need to fix it.
Still, with the exception of Jamie telling you somewhat erroniously that all Italians eat pizza by lifting a big slice, folding it over and craming it in their mouths (yes, on the street by usually not in a restaurant), Jamie's commentary on Italian food production and preparation hit the mark, and the recipes he presents are easy to follow and can be made with ingredients most of us can find in the supermarket--a big plus these days.
Many of the recipes are familiar. Chicken Hunter Style, or Pollo alla Cacciatora is present in a simple preparation that uses red wine instead of white, and is guaranteed to be better than the prepared sludge you buy in the supermarket. But there's also the odd gelato con olio e sale, Vanilla ice cream with olive oil and salt.
The recipes are easy to follow, and those I've prepared have been a hit with friends who've accepted the difficult role of taste tester.
If you're in the mood for a book that points out the differences in food attitudes and fresh ingredients between Italy and the US or UK, while presenting recipes you can try with your own local ingredients, Jamie's Italy is a great place to start.
