Creating a National Cuisine

Pellegrino Artusi’s La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene. Manuale pratico per le famiglieis filled with recipes collected from all over Italy. It was written in the early days of Italy’s unification, and it was one of the ways people from different regions could learn about each other. The recipes played a role in standardizing Italian gastronomic language. By bridging regional differences and standardizing cooking terms, it was somewhat similar to the Betty Crocker cookbooks in the United States. Artusi updated the book and published multiple editions until his death in 1911. The final version—which included almost 800 recipes—is still in print today.