The books that shaped us
The Notebook's Library
A library is not a list, but a confession. The books one chooses tell who one is. These are ours: classics and contemporary, theory and practice, East and West. We recommend them not to imitate them, but to understand them.
Classic
De re coquinaria
Marcus Gavius Apicius · I sec. d.C.
The first cookbook of the West. Apicius collects over 400 recipes of ancient Rome, from complex sauces to luxury dishes. It is our starting point: every reference to the culinary past passes through here.
Classic
The Cook of Baghdad
Anonymous (trans. Ibrahim al-Mahdī) · X sec.
The oldest Arabic recipe book. 160 recipes telling of 10th-century Baghdad: spices, techniques, perfumes. The bridge between Persian and Mediterranean cuisine. Fundamental to understanding our East-West thread.
Italian classic
Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well
Pellegrino Artusi · 1891
The book that united Italy at the table. 790 recipes, dialect and Italian, gathers regional cuisine with respect and curiosity. Artusi was 71 when he published it — proof that it is never too late.
French classic
Le Guide Culinaire
Auguste Escoffier · 1903
The codification of great French cuisine. Over 5000 recipes, a system, a language. Escoffier ordered what his predecessors had discovered. Not to imitate it, but to understand it.
Food philosophy
The Physiology of Taste
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin · 1825
The book that invented gastronomy as thought. Brillat-Savarin writes no recipes, but meditations: 'Tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are.' Fundamental to our idea of cuisine as introspection.
Contemporary
The Pleasures of Food
Edoardo Bonicelli · 2018
A modern reflection on pleasure at the table, between neuroscience and philosophy. To understand why we eat not only to nourish ourselves, but to tell our story.
Mediterranean
Mediterranean Cooking
Paolo Petroni · 1974
The book that defined the 'Mediterranean diet' before it became a slogan. Recipes, history, geography of a sea that unites three continents.
Italian abroad
The Food of Love
Marcella Hazan · 1973
The woman who taught Italy to America. Her recipes are simple, precise, uncompromising. The secret? Butter, patience, and the conviction that food is love.
Avant-garde
A Day at elBulli
Ferran Adrià · 2010
The book that told the revolution. 370 recipes, 1500 pages, a cuisine that changed the way we think. Adrià showed that cooking can be conceptual art.
Nordic
Noma: Time and Place
René Redzepi · 2010
The manifesto of modern foraging. Redzepi showed that every place has its cuisine — just listen to the land. A book that taught us to see the forest with new eyes.
Garden
A Cook's Garden
Antonio Carluccio · 1991
A tribute to the garden, the harvest, time. Carluccio tells of vegetables with respect and simplicity. For those who want to understand Italian vegetable cooking at the root.
Contemporary
Never Trust a Chef Who Doesn't Cook
Massimo Bottura · 2014
Bottura's thought: tradition and innovation are not enemies, but companions. Classic recipes revisited with respect and courage. To understand that tradition is an idea, not a cage.