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Title: not authentic; not surprised
Review: if you have a general all-purpose cookbook, you have this cookbook and should look elsewhere to expand your library. this is nothing more than an all-purpose cookbook that was originally published for an italian market. it has 'starter recipes' for cooks who want know for example what marinara or ragu is but not how to make exceptional versions of these recipes. while billing itself as 'authentic' and 'italian', its contents are made up of nearly fifty percent basic french cooking and the remaining fifty is more a combination of mediterranean countries' cooking than solely italian fare.if you want authentic and italian, it would serve your interests better to invest in books by Marcella Hazan, Pino Luongo, 'Culinaria Italy', Mario Batali, or Lidia Bastianich than to waste your time and money on Phaidon's hyped offering (even though some of the above chefs contributed blurbs to it). it's all a matter of where your cooking's passions and priorities lie.
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