Pellegrino Artusi

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Pellegrino Artusi (born in Forlimpopoli, a town near Forlì, 1820 – died in Florence, 1911) is the author of the famous Italian cookbook La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene (The Science of Cooking and the Art of Eating Well).

Artusi made his fortune as a silk merchant, but after retiring devoted himself to fine dining. In 1891, at age 71, he completed his famous cookbook, but couldn't find a publisher. So he used his own money to self-publish, selling a thousand copies of the first edition in four years. Soon, however, the cookbook caught on, and before Artusi died in 1911, more than 200,000 copies had been sold. Filled with amusing anecdotes as well as recipes, the book is a perennial best seller in Italy, and has been translated in Spanish, Dutch, German and English.

Writing only two decades after the unification of Italy, Artusi was the first to include recipes from all the different regions of Italy in a single cookbook. He is often credited with establishing a truly national Italian cuisine for the first time.

Editions:

• La Scienza in Cucina E L'arte Di Mangiar Bene , Grandi Tascabili Economici 1975, ISBN 88-7983-555-6
• Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well, University of Toronto Press 2003, ISBN 0-8020-8657-8