The Silver Spoon

I stumbled into this at a thrift shop for a buck, and bought it based on the publisher. Phaidon does terrific books, so I dropped it in my cart without really looking at it, other than to see it's Italian. I have kidney disease and am searching for dishes that can be enjoyed on an extremely restrictive (low sodium and as little protein and phosphorous & potassium as possible) diet, so I've been amassing cookbooks, looking for a few needles in the haystacks of salt, sugar and meat and potatoes heavy recipes. YOu'd think with all the pancetta wrapped asparagus and parmesan encrusted chard I might be flat out of luck, but with 2000 classic and modern recipes, I found a number of exciting new ideas. I love that this is a book written for how Italians eat, and not just recipes developed in Italy too. It gives more variety and some wonderful surprises.with over 1250 pages, if you just want Italian, you should be satisfied. The truest measure of my esteem is when I buy a second copy for my daughter, the natural cook in our family. She will love this one! She visited my Italian cousin in Vicenza last summer and was bowled over by his talent and passion for cooking. He gave her quite a lesson in shopping for cheese and wine and she'll be glad to have recipes for her favorites. Her boyfriend comes from a big Italian family and his grandmother will be delighted that she has this too. So one book that is terrific for two cooks with very different needs.

I own over three hundred cookbooks so it's rare for me to get excited over a new one, but The Silver Spoon is different. This is by far the best cookbook released in the English language in the past ten years. One has to wonder why it took so long for an English-language version to be sold in North America. This cookbook has almost everything a serious home cook could want. Most recipes are simple to prepare and turn out well, and all call for real ingredients, not canned or pre-processed glop. It's surprising how few ingredients go into most recipes and how incredibly flavourful they turn out. I've tried over 30 recipes from the book, and every one turned out perfectly and was delicious. One unusual feature is the large section on vegetables. Too many cookbooks have huge sections dedicated to meat but a tiny vegetable section containing only a few recipes for carrots, potatoes, and corn. The Silver Spoon contains recipes for dozens of vegetables, including finnochio, mushrooms, artichokes, cabbage (all kinds), parsnips, turnips, chard, and cardoons, in addition to recipes for the more common types. There's also an extensive section on seafood and fish and a large number of "first course" recipes, including appetizers, pizzas, soups, and salads. Other reviewers have mentioned that many recipes call for unusual amounts of certain ingredients. This is likely because the translators didn't want to test the recipes themselves and were leery of changing the recipes without testing. I personally would have preferred if both metric and imperial measures had been given. In Canada most of our food is sold in metric sizes, so sometimes I feel like I'm translating backwards (11 oz. is 300 grams, 7 oz. is 200 grams, etc.). There are a few translation clunkers that haven't been recently mentioned: the "Caesar mushrooms" called for in some recipes are likely chanterelles, and the "farro" which makes up some grain dishes is much better known in North America as spelt. I suspect that many of these "errors" in translation are really differences between UK usage and North American usage. The section on baking is much smaller than in most North American cookbooks. I don't know if Italian families don't eat sweets or if they buy them from a bakery, but the lack of cookie, cake, and tart recipes did seem strange to me. There is also no recipe for Italian bread, quite possibly because most Europeans live near a good bakery and don't have to choose between making bread at home or eating the styrofoamish bread sold at most North American supermarkets. These are minor quibbles, however. The Silver Spoon contains thousands of uncomplicated recipes for delicious food. It would be a steal at twice the price.

First off, this book is huge. This great cookbook from Phaidon Press is filled with great color photos and is smartly organized. They had great source material to work with, but it is well edited. Rather than use step-by-step processes, each recipe is a brief paragraph on how to prepare it. Some of the ingrediants seem as if they might be hard to come by, but the overwhelming majority of the 2,000+ recipes use readily available ingrediants. Definitely worthwhile for both the rising beginner and the experienced cook, foodies will love it, and all of my friends "ooo" and "aah" over it. The one "downfall" is it's sheer size. Phaidon has solved this by making a spine that stays open to your desired page. Also appreciated are the two ribbon bookmarkers to switch between recipes handily. Overall, a great addition to the kitchen.

_The Silver Spoon_ was originally published in Italy in 1950 by the Italian architectural and design magazine _Domus_. (Italian Title "Il Cucchiaio d'argento." The eighth edition came out in 1997.)The publishers at Phaidon, the British publishing house, have done a remarkable job of translating and designing _The Silver Spoon for American and British cooks. The cookbook combines both traditional Italian recipes, and more contemporary Italian recipes influenced by other cuisines. If I had to make a comparison, I would say that it's much like a Italian version of "The Joy of Cooking," though not nearly as comprehensive. I have three or four "classical" Italian cookbooks, and many of the recipes in those books are repeated here. I think that I'll hang on to them - but more for the extra information relating to Italian cuisine (which this book lacks) than for the recipes. The food: _The Silver Spoon_ is divided into 14 chapters (with a preface): Eating is a Serious Matter (preface) Cooking Terms - This chapter is a comprehensive glossary of all of the cooking terms used in the book. It covers terms for ingredients, cookware, and cooking techniques. I especially liked how the authors delineated exactly what they mean for specific terms related to technique; for example, "Brown in a Pan: To cook vegetables over low heat in butter or oil until they go a light golden color. This is particularly common with thinly slice donion or garlic cloves. Meat or vegetables may also be cooked in oil or butter ina skillet over high heat until a rich, even brown in color during the first or final stage of cooking." Equally detailed descriptions are given for everything from "Aceto Balsamico" to "Whisk/Beat". Experienced cooks may find these descriptions unneccesary, but as an amateur, I really appreciated them. The definitions of Italian words "Cacciatore", "Ribollita", etc. are the only indications in the entire book of the origins of any particular dish. Tools and Equipment - This chapter gives information on the types of cookware necessary for the recipes included, some notes on kitchen organization, and two full-color pages of pictures of the different types of cookware neccessary. Sauces, Marinades, and Flavored Butters - This chapter includes recipes for nearly every sauce that I've ever heard of - including all of the mother sauces, each with two to ten sauces based on them. This chapter is divided into the following subchapters: Hot Sauces Cold Sauces Marinades Flavored Butters ( five pages of recipes for these) Antipasti, Appetizers, and Pizzas - Include Crostini, Pates, Quiches, Canapes, and many others. First Courses - Soups, Pasta (fresh and dried), and Rice Dishes Eggs and Frittata Vegetables - How to prepare every vegetable under the sun (including some I have never heard of) and salads. The salads chapter seems a bit short, though meat and seafood salads