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Food Festivals of Italy

by James Fraioli and Leonardo Curti

Review
Illustrated with color (or sometimes black-and-white) photography on virtually every page, Food Festivals of Italy: Celebrated Recipes from 50 Food Fairs is an amazingly beautiful recipe and coffee table book. Interspersing its easy-to-follow instructions to create celebratory Italian cuisine with extensive images of the mouth-watering delicacies at each stage of preparation, from raw ingredients to the people who devote themselves to culinary art to the finished feast, Food Festivals of Italy is intended more for connoisseurs who love to linger over lavishly illustrated cookbooks than for practical kitchen use (its sheer size makes it slightly difficult to fit on a kitchen countertop while one cooks, though it enables the reader to see every last detail in the captivating photos). A worthy centerpiece for upscale cookbook
Midwest Book Review, Oregon, Wisconsin (Amazon.com)

Description
Each year Italy's beautiful countryside is spattered with numerous food festivals that showcase various delectable foods,such as garlic, pasta, lentils, fruits, nuts, chocolates, and more. Food Festivals of Italy not only highlights Italy's most diverse food fairs, but brings a taste of authentic Italy into your home with 100 recipes featuring the festival foods.

Part cookbook and part travelogue, Food Festivals of Italy is filled with spectacular photographs and centuries-old recipes that bring the Italian countryside, its people, and their cuisine to life-transporting both food lovers and travel aficionadosto the stall-lined village streets of these local fairs and their spectacular settings.

Chef Leonardo Curti and and award-winning author James O. Fraioli take both professional chefs and home cooks on a culinary odyssey of a different sort, creating this carefully culled collection of the best of each food festival's mouthwatering recipes.

About the Authors
The executive chef and co-proprietor at the acclaimed Trattoria Grappolo bistro in Santa Ynez, California. Born in Calabria, Italy, Leonardo learned his culinary skills in Tuscany before relocating to Los Angeles, where he worked as a chef at Cicada and founded Pane Caldo in Beverly Hills. Leonardo's gastronomic journey then led him to Aspen, where he joined the legendary Farfalla Restaurant. In 1997, Leonardo opened Trattoria Grappolo in Santa Ynez and hasn't looked back. Today, the casual bistro continues to serve authentic, traditional Italian fare for lunch and dinner. Aside from the restaurant, Leonardo runs a full catering company and teaches private cooking classes. He has also launched a new line of pasta sauces.

James O. Fraioli is an award-winning author of numerous books, an investigative journalist, and a food and travel writer,having contributed hundreds of feature articles to more than twenty magazines. Seasoned, skilled, and known for both the speed and grace of his writing, Fraioli' stitles reflect a wide variety of subjects. His work has appeared on national radio and television, including Martha Stewart Radio, The Discovery Channel, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and The Food Network; presented at the White House; and featured in a variety of periodicals including Forbes Traveler, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The New York Times.
Fraioli and Chef Curti also teamed up on the award-winning cookbook, Trattoria Grappolo: Simple Recipes for Traditional Italian Cuisine.