Pellegrino Artusi and the culinary unification of Italy

Even more than a person, Artusi is a cookery book, indeed, the cookery book par excellence, at the very heart of modern Italian cuisine. With fifteen editions in twenty years, from 1891 to 1911, which were compiled and revised directly by the author, the book has been since then re-edited, copied, plagiarized and translated into many languages (ten, to date: English, Spanish, Catalan, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Russian, French, Polish, Japanese) right up to the present day, so becoming the ambassador of Italian cuisine in the world.

The collection of recipes is also a political project, as Pellegrino Artusi aimed at giving a contribution to the making of Italy. He thought that sharing the national gastronomic habits and a common language – as “concrete” as the one spoken in the kitchen, when it is necessary to name ingredients and practices- could be an important element in the project of cultural unification then ongoing.

The exhibition Pellegrino Artusi and the culinary unification of Italy illustrates Pellegrino Artusi’s life, the up-to-dateness of his work and the project the city of Forlimpopoli -his native land and his testamentary heir to his own will- is developing about home cooking. It has been produced by the Culture Department of Emilia-Romagna Region, Casa Artusi and the Municipality of Rimini.

The exhibit and the catalogue are available in Albanian, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish.

• exhibition Pellegrino Artusi and the Culinary Unification of Italy (5.31 MB)
• catalogue (4.26 MB).

The exhibit can be presented with:

• lectures and conferences by experts of Casa Artusi’s Scientific Committee;
• workshops on hand-made “pasta sfoglia” curated by Casa Artusi’s “Mariettas”;
• theme dinners and tastings curated by Casa Artusi’s master chefs and “Mariettas”;
• the puppet show by Laura Kibel and Verónica González inspired to Artusi:
  Cooking with your feet  (available in English, Italian, Spanish).

On the occasion of Artusi’s Bicentenary, six promotional videos have been released, produced by the Foreign Ministry and curated by Casa Artusi and Emilia-Romagna Region: SCIENCE in the KITCHEN and the ART of EATING WELL knowledge and flavours from Italian lands, highlighting the extraordinary Italian agri-food heritage and the teaching of the gastronome from Forlimpopoli who ‘lives in the future’. Casa Artusi, in turn, released a video to celebrate the anniversary:

• playlist videos SCIENCE in the KITCHEN and the ART of EATING WELL knowledge and flavours from Italian lands
• video of the Bicentenary Casa Artusi in Forlimpopoli – A journey through Italian home cooking.

From Casa Artusi’s YouTube channel, some other videos on Artusian recipes and curiosity:

• Readings from Artusi’s Autiobiography (2020)
  Actor Denio Derni reads passages from the pages collecting memories of his early childhood spent in Romagna, in Forlimpopoli, and of youth, until the moving to Florence (IT):
  Chapter 1 Nacqui a Forlimpopoli
  Chapter 2 Altro che falde 
  Chapter 3 La vetusta grandezza 
  Chapter 4 Amor di Patria 
  Chapter 5 La notte del Passatore
  
  
• Chi era Pellegrino Artusi? (2013)
  Vice-president of Casa Artusi Laila Tentoni tells the story of Pellegrino Artusi and his bequest (IT)
  
  
• Pellegrino Artusi. L'unità d'Italia in cucina (2011)
  A portrait of Pellegrino Artusi through the words by professor Massimo Montanari, food historian Alberto Capatti and chef Massimo Bottura to rediscover the relevance of his work: hygiene, economy, and good taste. 
  The video is also available on DVD, with English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish subtitles.
  
  
• Pellegrino Artusi in Quante Storie TV program (2018)
  Focus on Piero Camporesi and Pellegrino Artusi in Rai TV program by Corrado Augias on January 23, 2018. President of Casa Artusi Giordano Conti as guest (IT)
  
  
• Casa Artusi at Geo TV program (January 2017, and September 2017)
  Carla Brigliadori, responsible for the School, Laila Tentoni, vice-president of Casa Artusi, and the ‘Mariettas’ guests of Sveva Sagramola’s Rai TV program, all engaged in Artusian recipes (IT);
  
  
• Casa Artusi at Linea Verde TV program (2014)
  Visiting Casa Artusi in Forlimpopoli with Patrizio Roversi and Laila Tentoni to get close to the father of modern Italian cuisine (IT).