2. Italy
Primary Mediterranean
climate, alpine climate in far
north and hot and dry in the
south
arable land: 31%
permanent crops: 10%
permanent pastures: 15%
forests and woodland: 23%
other: 21% (1993 est.)
3. Cooking of Italy
• Is the cooking of regions,
each has distinct its style
and cultural (only after 1861
these regions were became
Italy)
• Two dominant aspects of
landscape: Mountain and
Sea. Long growing season
permit lush profusion of fruit
and vegetables
• Basic difference between
north and south (by
geography and historical
reasons)
4. Italian have continuous conscious intensive attention to
growing vegetables
• First agricultural books were written by
Romans
• Local specialty: best asparagus, spinach
(better than French which is better than
American), rice was so good that was
smuggled illegally out of the country by
Thomas Jefferson; plum tomato was re-
imported to U.S; Italian names of
vegetables: broccoli, zucchini, fava
beans, tender tasty peas (petits pois was
named by French by was from Italy);
• Because of good quality vegetables,
cooking veg. Is a simplest treatment.
5. The food of Italy is a function of the history of Italy
North: prosperous, fertile,
industrialized and affluent; using
butter as cooking fat, flat fresh
noodles made with eggs are
favorite form of pasta; veal is male
calf (female kept for milking); more
and better coffee; more meat
dishes;
South: parched, sparsely settled
and historically poorer; using olive
oil (cheaper), dried tubular pastas
like spaghetti and macaroni, more
robust and highly seasoned; veal is
female calf, male kept as drafting
animal; drink 1/5 of coffee that
northerner does; fish dishes;
Foundations of Italian cooling are
the three customs:
Etruscans (the north)
Greeks (the south)
Saracens
Greek
Etruscans
Tribes
Veneti
Stone Age
6. Origin of the three main influences
Etruscans: 3 theories:
(1) Entered Italy from some
unspecified territory to the
north
(2) it has always been there
(migrate from nowhere)
(3) From Lydia (similar religions)
Greeks and
Saracens: came from east end of
Mediterranean where
countries shared the same
general type of cooking
(Byzantine)
Saracens
Greek
Etruscans
Tribes
Veneti
Stone Age
7. The art of eating
• Italians love to
eat and are
passionate
about their
food
• They consider
good cooking
an art
• Italian food is regional.
People prefer to use
ingredients found in
their particular region
(pasta from the south
is tubular while the in
the north it’s flat)
• The ability to prepare
their own food is very
important to Italians
• Sharing food is very
important to Italians
• One of the
essential flavours
in Italian food is
family and friends
8. Still eating • Before meals, some Italians might
pray or cross themselves and
will almost always wish everyone
“Buon appetito”- enjoy your meal
• Lunch and dinner tend to be the
same, with one being a smaller meal
• Bread and wine are served
throughout the meal
• Wine and water are served with
lunch
• Espresso coffee is favoured
9. The archetypical celebratory Italian meal of the past does not occur today
except for the most festive of occasions. When it does it usually consists of
something like this with each course served separately.
• Antipasto; cold or hot
appetizers
• Primo; hot pasta,
soup or vegetable
• Secondo; beef, lamb,
pork, chicken, fish or veal
• Contorno; salad or
vegetable
• Dolce; dessert
• Caffe; espresso
• Digestivo; brandy,
grappa or amaretto
•