Towards a National Cuisine, Language, and Identity: Reading Italian History Through "La Scienza in Cucina di Pellegrino Artusi"

Anyone with an interest in Italian cuisine, as well as most Italians, know the name Pellegrino Artusi. His cookbook La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiar bene (Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well), known... [ view full abstract ]

Anyone with an interest in Italian cuisine, as well as most Italians, know the name Pellegrino Artusi. His cookbook La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiar bene (Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well), known simply as l’Artusi among Italians, is Italy’s most famous cookbook.With his work, Pellegrino Artusi offers a first attempt at codifying a national culinary language in Italy. For this reason, his cookbook is a lens through which we can see and understand the creation of a unified Italian language and national culture. Through analysis of the language used in Artusi’s recipes, this research attempts to demonstrate how Artusi facilitated the codification of both a national culinary language and a unified Italian language. Both food systems and language of are markers of culture and group identity and for this reason, La scienza in cucina is a useful instrument for studying the history of the Italian language and Italian national identity.