Recipe for the Nation

Reading Italian History Through La Scienza in Cucina and La Cucina Futurista

Bibliographic Data

ID5199017
AuthorsCarol Helstosky (University of Denver, corresponding author)
Year2003
Volume11
Issue2-3
Pages113-140
Publication date2003-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueFood and Foodways (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0740-9710 • E-ISSN: 1542-3484
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/07409710390242372
OpenAlexW1988553355
LanguageEN
Citations received15

Today, the relationship between Italian food and Italian identity seems an unremarkable fact. This article explores the history of this relationship by examining and comparing two cookbooks, Pellegrino Artusi's La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene (1891) and Filippo Marinetti's La cucina futurista (1932). Both cookbooks use food preparation and consumption to talk about larger questions of national identity, political crisis, and how Italians should be “made.” Artusi advocated a national homogenization of existing food habits, spearheaded by the fledgling middle classes, while Marinetti proposed a complete revolution in Italian food habits, to overcome the past and start over. Although they sharply contrast with each other in their approach to questions of national identity and food consumption, they share a common concern with what was possible for future generations of Italians and a realization that food served a material, aesthetic, and political purpose in Italian history. The similarities between the books highlight the political significance of food in modern Italy. The differences between the two books demonstrate the possibilities -and limits-of shaping the nation and national identity through the everyday practices of preparing and consuming food

Aesthetics · Art · Consumption (sociology) · Economics · Food consumption · Foodways · History of Italy · Identity (music) · National identity · Political science · Politics · Reading (process) · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law

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