The Rarest Cookbook in the Series Found

I came home to a very special envelope today sent in from one of our fans in Sicily. It reminded me of that scene when Indiana Jones opens the Grail diary his father sent him from Venice (with all the stamps in the brown wrapping … I’m an 80’s kid, deal with it.)

Inside was an amazing treasure, not unlike the Grail Diary. A strange addition to the Italy In Bocca series that I had never seen and never even heard of in all my research. “Cucina Che Vai Natura Che Trovi” or “Kitchen You Go Nature You Find”. Some caveman talk right there y’all.

Fascinated, at first I thought it was some cheap knock-off trying to capitalize on the magic that is the original In Bocca series. The inner cover tells a different story however. I shall translate:

“This essay, edited by the editorial staff of popular traditions of the publishing house, is taken from the archive of folkloristic and gastronomic documentation collected for the publication of the series "ITALIA IN BOCCA" … The price of these volumes is L. 7,000. The series, created with the same editorial format as this essay, printed on traditional "straw" paper, constitutes the most complete collection of folkloristic and gastronomic tales of peasant women from all the Italian regions.”

This little booklet offers a ton of interesting info and clears up some major mysteries behind the In Bocca series. First, 7,000 Lira would be about $3.50 USD which is nuts considering each book is around 400.00 USD if you can find them, which is an increase of 11,329% (had to check my math on that twice).

Second, it looks like this was an “Edizione Fouri Commercio” which translates to “Out of Print Edition” but I’m taking it to mean that it is outside the official series. What’s interesting is that Averna Fratelli SPA are the ones that put this edition together, as they thank the publishing house "IL VESPRO FOR HAVING CREATED THIS ESSAY, WHICH IS THE RESULT OF LONG PASSIONATE RESEARCH CARRIED OUT AT THE ""SOURCES"" OF TRUE NATURAL SICILIAN CUISINE.” - What Averna was doing in colab with Il Vespro I donno, but I love Averna so all good.

Finally what’s cool is we get a full list of all the contributing authors for each book. If you didn’t know each regional book has a unique author, and while there are a ton of illustrations, Rodo Santoro is the only illustrator for all the books. It’s a unique setup:

“For the "ITALY IN THE MOUTH" series, the following have written: Ennio Celant, Alberta Lantermo, Mario Soldati, Mila Contini, Pino Correnti, Eva Kurt, Maria Sassi, Walter Rossi, Giuseppe Maffioli, Enrico Vaime, Gianni Grimaldi, Bruno Lauzi, Ambra Ferrari, Franco Cristofori, Fosca Martini, Max David, Grazietta Butazzi, Tino Buazzelli, Igino Righi, Antonella Santolini, Piero Chiara, Carlo Natali, Remo Brindisi, Nino Taranto, Luigi Sada, Fred Bongusto, Beppe Mallo, Franca Colonna Romano, Vincenzo Buonassisi, Francesco Deplano, Fernando Pilia. The illustrations have been: Rodo Santoro, Ersilia Vozzi Guazzoni, Carmelo Cappello, Fabrizio Lupo, Mario Bardi, Andrea Sciortino, Picro Cauli, Gabriella Giardinelli, Rosa Scalini, Paola Campanale, Rosella Brambilla, Giuseppe Mi- gneco, Marina Botta, Giancarlo Di Simone, Teresa Migliorino, Liliana Conti, Maurizio Bonesoli, Ernesto Treccani, Giovanni De Maria, Vittorio Alunni, Gery Scalzo, Paolo Fici, Benedetto Taliento, Paola Renzi, Giovaoni Magenga, Fabrizio Monteverdi, Rosanna Musotto, Paola Lazzaroni, Filippo De Gasperi, Manuela Busetti, Arturo Cavalli, Lila Chilmann, Giuseppe Simonetti, Franco Montemaggiore, Liliana Conti Cammarata, Francesco Spadetta. Ettore Ghezzi, Giuseppe Chiaudano, Paolo Pellegrini, Maria Ricciardelli, Rudy Silvano”

I would love to track each person down and send them the documentary we did, maybe even do a little interview. Amazing history here.

I have to say how blessed I feel right now. These books have such a strange and powerful history with me that they seem literally magical. My best friend became enchanted with them when he was 15. He gifted one to me years and years later. That gift turned into a quest to collect, and then durring one of the darkest times in our lives we turned them into a little film. That film has gone on to bringing him close to his Italian family, bringing us to Italy on multiple occasions, and connecting literally with thousands of people through them. It really is wild to think that from these semi-forgotten pages so much wonder and joy continues to spring, and now, another wonderful page added to this story. Thank you my friends in Sicily for sending this our way, it is truly a very special gift. Grazie.