Our February-March Cook the Book Pick

The Unprejudiced Palate: Classic Thoughts on Food and the Good Life, by Angelo Pellegrini (1948)
 What did America look like to an immigrant Italian child? How did this child applied his philosophy of life, rooted in Italy, to his new home in Seattle? In this book, the first he published, Pellegrini tells his story but also the way he sees life and in particular the way he approaches growing, making and eating food (and wine too).

I am also Italian and an immigrant to the US, though, differently from Pellegrini, I arrived here as an adult. Still, I read with interest his impressions of the New World and his thoughts on what he experienced. 

Pellegrini’s prose is pleasant and precise (in his “day job” he was an English professor), with the affectionate intensity typical of Italians when they talk about things that are dear to them. He was not part of any school of thought nor did he follow any fashion: with grace and kindness, he told things as he saw them and as he did them. When you read something in the book that sounds familiar, remember that he wrote it over 65 years ago.

I hope you will enjoy this food writing classic and will be inspired by it.

Note: As this book was originally published decades ago, it exists in various editions, the most recent of which is part of Random House's Modern Library Food series (the ebook is also available). I have the 1984 edition, which has an afterword by MFK Fisher, describing the rather inauspicious beginning of her acquaintance, and later friendship, with Pellegrini. 

Submissions for this round of Cook The Books are due by end-of-the-day Thursday, March 31, 2016. Anyone can join by reading the current selection, preparing a dish inspired by its contents and writing about it. Let me know when your entry post is up by commenting on this post and/or sending me an email at: simosite AT mac DOT com. 

New to Cook the Books? Check out our About and Guidelines pages or leave a question in the comments on this post. 

Simona, of Briciole