Description
Exploding the myth that Marco Polo discovered pasta in China and brought it back to Italy, this volume shows that pasta has existed in various forms throughout Middle Eastern, Asian, and even North African culinary cultures long before its appearance in the West.
About the Author
Silvano Serventi is a historian of food and of French and Italian culinary practices. He is the author of many books, including The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy (with Odile Redon and Francoise Sabban). Francoise Sabban is a sinologist and director of studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Antony Shugaar is coauthor of Latitude Zero: Tales of the Equator and translator of The Judge and the Historian by Carlo Ginzburg, and Niccolo's Smile and Republicanism by Maurizio Viroli. He lives in Arlington, VA.
Reviews
Serventi and Sabban's remarkable tracing of pasta's history and development makes this a central addition to the history of food. -- Mark Knoblauch Booklist [Pasta] is stuffed as tight as cannelloni with facts, numbers and quotes...an excellent study not only of pasta but of the way a single product can mutate and influence various economies over time...no doubt the exhaustive new authority on its subject. Publishers Weekly A feast for the mind. Guardian Offers more in the way of pasta history than most readers have even begun to imagine. Kirkus Reviews There are countless books on pasta, but none before has really explained how noodles took over the world, from the two great civilizations of China and Italy... [Pasta] is rich with stories. -- Bee Wilson London Times You might think that a 400-plus-page book about pasta wouldn't be much of a page turner, but you'd be wrong...Serventi & Sabban have written an engrossing book. -- Dan Santow Chicago Tribune [A]nyone who cares about pasta (which is to say, anyone who eats) will find a great deal of fascinating material to savor. This book is catnip for history buffs. -- Fred Plotkin Gastronomica Pasta shows how much is to be gained by looking at historical change through the lens provided by... food. -- Priscilla Ferguson Journal of Modern History
Book Information
ISBN 9780231124423
Author Silvano Serventi
Format Hardback
Page Count 416
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press