the italian table – my new book!!

I know it seems like I just wrote a book (I did!) . But if you were paying close attention, there has been a recurring theme in my posts on this blog and on social media. For the last two years I was working on not one, but TWO books at the same time. Call me crazy (don’t worry, I’ve referred to myself that way) but at the time it made sense. Since both books covered a lot of the same physical territory (Italy) and since I was the photographer, as well as the writer,  for both projects (again, call me crazy if you feel like it) my thinking was that I might as well kill two birds with one stone while I was on the road and at my desk.

But the story behind my newest book goes back a bit further than Eating My Way Through Italy. In 2013 I was having lunch with an editor from Rizzoli, who I had known for a while. I was just chatting away about Italy while trying not to appear over impressed with that famous roast chicken at Nomad (Remember what a big deal that was in 2013?!) . At one point Chris asked me if I had any ideas for future books (I had just signed a contract to write  Eating Rome  with another publisher, St. Martins) and  somehow, out of my mouth, between bites of chicken, came the words ‘The Italian Dinner Party Handbook’. Not only did it impress me (where had this idea come from?) it also impressed Chris. So much so that I eventually signed a contract for a new book based on not much more than an idea thought up over a mouth full of chicken.

Yes. This is the way publishing often works.

The thing was I had to deliver my other two books first (that’s also how publishing works).

Fast forward five years (and four editors) later and I can now proudly present to you the cover of my next book: The Italian Table: Creating Festive Meals for Family and Friends. Somewhere along the way the title changed (that is also the nature of publishing). But the core concept has remained the same, since that first lunch , and only grown stronger.

Basically this book is my answer to a question I get almost every day:

How do Italians actually eat?

I receive a version of this question on a daily basis. Do Italians really eat three courses at every meal? Do Italians eat pasta every day? How do Italians stay so thin when it seems to be one big carb fest? Does everyone drink wine with every meal?

The answer? Yes. No. Maybe. It depends.

Although there are as many answers as there are questions, my standard response is as beautifully complex as the country is itself. Eating in Italy is as much about the experience as it is about the food. Yes, recipes and ingredients are important, but it is the ceremony of the meal itself – or lack of ceremony in most cases – that so often gets lost once the recipes travel off the peninsula and onto the pages of cookbooks.

Italian food is about experience. The geographic experience, the social experience and the sense of style that most Italians bring to the table.

My new book, The Italian Table, brings all of these elements together, through words and images. It is my portrait of some of the ways that Italians come around the table, and how you can recreate these experiences at home.

And if you’ve been reading my blog over the last year, you’ll kind of get the idea behind my new book. I’ve been posting a lot about creating dinner parties. My main idea behind these posts was to give you a full menu, because that is often the quandary most hosts face when entertaining. And yes, there are pretty pictures, and of course recipes.  But there is also advice about entertaining, including setting the table, timing and what to drink. Because for me, these elements are as important as which shape of pasta you choose for your cacio e pepe.

I could go on and on….and I do, in The Italian Table, which will be published by Rizzoli on March 19, 2019. For now, I leave you with the cover. (Which I LOVE. ) And I’ll be sharing  much more about it in the coming months.

And although it seems a LONG way off, you can actually pre-order the book already.