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Il Cucchiaio d'Argento was published in 1950 by Editoriale Domus in Milan, the same publisher that produces the architecture and design magazine Domus. Italy's great cookbook therefore comes from a design publisher, which explains something about the way it looks.
It has no author. The recipes were collected from home cooks across the country and edited together, which is why it covers the regions in a way no single person could have managed.
Around 2,000 recipes across more than 1,500 pages. The book has appeared in eight editions, sold millions of copies and is still one of the most common wedding presents in Italy, in other words the book you are expected to receive when you are about to start cooking for yourself.
A warning is in order. The recipes are extremely concise. Four lines is not unusual, explanations are almost entirely absent and most dishes are unillustrated. The book assumes that you already know how to cook and only need to know what goes into the dish.
That makes it a reference volume rather than a book for inspiration. If you know your way around the kitchen and want the breadth, this is the one. If you want to be taught, Marcella Hazan is the right book.
Format: Hardback
Number of pages: 1505
Language: English
First published: 1950 in Italian, this English edition 2011
The Kitchen Lab Selection
The Silver Spoon is the book Italians themselves would point to as their reference cookbook. Every Italian title published since stands in some relation to it, consciously or otherwise. There is something unusual about it: it is not the best written and it does not teach you the most, but it is the book an entire country has agreed upon. That the country happens to be Italy, and that what they have agreed upon is recipes, is a dizzying thought! There is no British equivalent, and it is worth considering why. If you want to cook Italian food tomorrow, we have better choices. If you want the complete Italian kitchen in your home and the ability to look up anything, there is nothing else.
