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The Consumer Viewpoint

SIMPLE ITALIAN COOKERY

American Woman's Home

Art of Living in Australia

Cooking Eggs

Elegant Art of Dining

Guide to Marketing and Cooking

Italian Recipes

Meal Preparation

School and Home Cooking

Physiology of Taste

Tried and True Recipes

Milk Butter Cheese Eggs Vegetables

Hans Christian Andersen . American Fairy Tales . Grimm's Fairy Tales

Aesop's Fables - Tales with Morals . Mother Goose . Mother Goose in Prose

The First Day

On the Tuesday morning the Marchesa travelled down to the
"Laurestinas," where she found that Mrs. Fothergill had been as
good as her word.  Everything was in perfect order.  The Marchesa
had notified to her pupils that they must report themselves that
same evening at dinner, and she took down with her her maid, one of
those marvellous Italian servants who combine fidelity with
efficiency in a degree strange to the denizens of more progressive
lands.  Now, with Angelina's assistance, she proposed to set before
the company their first dinner all'Italiana, and the last they
would taste without having participated in the preparation.  The
real work was to begin the following morning.

The dinner was both a revelation and a surprise to the majority of
the company.  All were well travelled, and all had eaten of the
mongrel French dishes given at the "Grand" hotels of the principal
Italian cities, and some of them, in search of adventures, had
dined at London restaurants with Italian names over the doors,
where--with certain honourable exceptions--the cookery was
French, and not of the best, certain Italian plates being included
in the carte for a regular clientele, dishes which would always be
passed over by the English investigator, because he now read, or
tried to read, their names for the first time.  Few of the
Marchesa's pupils had ever wandered away from the arid table d'hote
in Milan, or Florence, or Rome, in search of the ristorante at
which the better class of townsfolk were wont to take their
colazione.  Indeed, whenever an Englishman does break fresh ground
in this direction, he rarely finds sufficient presence of mind to
controvert the suggestions of the smiling minister who, having
spotted his Inglese, at once marks down an omelette aux fines
herbes and a biftek aux pommes as the only food such a creature can
consume.  Thus the culinary experiences of Englishmen in Italy have
led to the perpetuation of the legend that the traveller can indeed
find decent food in the large towns, "because the cooking there is
all French, you know," but that, if he should deviate from the
beaten track, unutterable horrors, swimming in oil and reeking with
garlic, would be his portion.  Oil and garlic are in popular
English belief the inseparable accidents of Italian cookery, which
is supposed to gather its solitary claim to individuality from the
never-failing presence of these admirable, but easily abused, gifts
of Nature.

"You have given us a delicious dinner, Marchesa," said Mrs. Wilding
as the coffee appeared.  "You mustn't think me captious in my
remarks--indeed it would be most ungracious to look a gift-dinner
in the--What are you laughing at, Sir John? I suppose I've done
something awful with my metaphors--mixed them up somehow."

"Everything Mrs. Wilding mixes will be mixed admirably, as
admirably, say, as that sauce which was served with the Manzo alla
Certosina," Sir John replied.

"That is said in your best style, Sir John," replied Mrs. Wilding;
"but what I was going to remark was, that I, as a poor parson's
wife, shall ask for some instruction in inexpensive cooking before
we separate.  The dinner we have just eaten is surely only within
the reach of rich people."

"I wish some of the rich people I dine with could manage now and
then to reach a dinner as good," said the Colonel.

"I believe it is a generally received maxim, that if you want a
truth to be accepted you must repeat the same in season and out,
whenever you have the opportunity," said the Marchesa.  "The
particular truth I have now in mind is the fact that Italian
cookery is the cookery of a poor nation, of people who have scant
means wherewith to purchase the very inferior materials they must
needs work with; and that they produce palatable food at all is, I
maintain, a proof that they bring high intelligence to the task.
Italian culinary methods have been developed in the struggle when
the cook, working with an allowance upon which an English cook
would resign at once, has succeeded by careful manipulation and the
study of flavouring in turning out excellent dishes made of fish
and meat confessedly inferior.  Now, if we loosen the purse-strings
a little, and use the best English materials, I affirm that we
shall achieve a result excellent enough to prove that Italian
cookery is worthy to take its stand beside its great French rival.
I am glad Mrs. Wilding has given me an opportunity to impress upon
you all that its main characteristics are simplicity and cheapness,
and I can assure her that, even if she should reproduce the most
costly dishes of our course, she will not find any serious increase
in her weekly bills.  When I use the word simplicity, I allude, of
course, to everyday cooking. Dishes of luxury in any school require
elaboration, care, and watchfulness."



  Menu -- Dinner*

  Zuppa d'uova alla Toscana.  Tuscan egg-soup.
  Sogliole alla Livornese.  Sole alla Livornese.
  Manzo alla Certosina.  Fillet of beef, Certosina sauce.
  Minuta alla Milanese.  Chickens' livers alla Milanese.
  Cavoli fiodi ripieni.  Cauliflower with forcemeat.
  Cappone arrosto con insalata.  Roast capon with salad.
  Zabajone.  Spiced custard.
  Uova al pomidoro.  Eggs and tomatoes.

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*The recipes for the dishes contained in all these menus will be
found in the second part of the book.  The limits of the seasons
have necessarily been ignored.