Authentic Italian: The Real Story of Italy’s Food and Its People

Product Description

A groundbreaking book that will change perceptions of Italian food and culture. Experience what Primo magazine calls a “must-read.” In the same vein as Michael Twitty’s Cooking Gene and Sean Sherman’s Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen
Just when you thought you knew everything about Italian food, the world’s most popular cuisine, in comes Authentic Italian, a book by a food writer and lawyer, who brings a new perspective on the much loved cuisine. With meticulous research, Di Maio critically examines Italian food as it has been defined by the food media and celebrity chefs. In this enlightening book, she also explores how Italian immigrants shaped the culinary landscape of America.
Pizza and spaghetti and meatballs are two of the most loved foods brought by Italian immigrants. But the new message is that true pizza comes from Naples and spaghetti and meatballs is not Italian. Who says so? The question is–who gets to define Italian food? Governments to drum up business for a failing economy? Corporations to strengthen their own bottom line? Academics who rely on books and statistics out of touch with the true culture? Celebrity chefs with books to sell and restaurants to fill? Di Maio offers the novel argument that the definition of Italian food belongs to the Italian people, the immigrants who carried it with them all over the world and created successful food businesses wherever they went.
Not without controversy, Di Maio doesn’t shy away from discussing the harsh reality of a war-torn Southern Italy to expose what the immigrant generation really went through before they were forced to make the journey overseas. And she also details what they found in their new countries abroad, hardly a road paved with gold.
Follow Di Maio on this culinary journey as she evokes the spirit of justice that the immigrant generation held dear. She tells the story of the Italian people as if her ancestors were there, whispering it in her ear: No matter what the popular food media states, the recipes, foods and traditions of the Italian-American people are nothing less than authentic Italian.

Review

“[Di Maio] wants to dispel the prejudices and biases about Italian immigrants and their food by demonstrating and reclaiming the authentic Italian identity of the dishes prepared and cooked in the kitchens of Americans of Italian descent…” –Francesca Gobbo, the University of Turin, for the 
Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition (SAFN)

“Authentic Italian: The Real Story of Italy’s Food and Its People is a must-read for all Italian Americans. The book is richly insightful, informative and entertaining. We all love Italian food. What better way to know what we love than to read an extraordinary book about the origins and travels of the world’s greatest cuisine.”–Truby Chiaviello, editor-in-chief of Primo magazine

About the Author

Dina M. Di Maio is a writer with an MFA in creative writing from NYU. She also holds a JD and is a licensed lawyer in Tennessee and New York. She has written for Glamour, Family Circle, Time Out New York, Okra, the American Bar Association, and more. She has written about Italian food and culture for over 20 years.