Pellegrino Artusi: The Man Who Unified Italian Cooking (And Why It Was Impossible)

In 1891, a retired silk merchant from Forlimpopoli named Pellegrino Artusi self-published La Scienza in Cucina e l'Arte di Mangiar Bene (Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well) — the first Italian cookbook that attempted to document recipes from across the entire peninsula. Italy had only been a unified nation since 1861; its regions spoke mutually incomprehensible dialects; its food traditions were entirely local. Artusi's book, which he revised and expanded through 15 editions until his death in 1911, became the first common culinary language of a nation that had no common spoken language. It was the bestselling Italian book after Pinocchio.

Artusi collected 790 recipes by correspondence — writing to home cooks across Italy, testing recipes in his own kitchen with his cook Marietta Sabatini and his manservant Francesco Ruffilli, and publishing the results with personal commentary, anecdotes, and opinions. The book is not a professional chef's manual — it is a home cook's book, written in accessible Italian (which itself was a political act — most Italians spoke only dialect), with the warmth and personality of a letter from a friend.

• Escoffier's Le Guide Culinaire (the French equivalent — codifying professional cuisine), Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking-School Cookbook (the American equivalent — standardising measurements), Mrs Beet
• Artusi's distinction: he was the only one working in a country where national identity was itself new