Bill Buford

Author

In effect, the first Italian recipe book, a surprisingly graceful 15th century collection of the dishes and ingredients that would become the foundation of Italian cooking (with the exception of a pasta made with eggs, which came later). There is a companion book, and the one that made Martino famous, written by a Vatican librarian known as il Platina, On Right Pleasure and Good Health, a glimpse into kitchens at the time (il Platina spent a summer watching Martino make feasts for a Cardinal at his summer house), and possibly the first example of explicit recipe theft.