An American who now lives and teaches Italian cooking in Italy, Bettoja is also co-author of Italian Cooking in the Grand Tradition (1982—not reviewed). Like the earlier book, this is arranged in menu form, with a few extra recipes at the end and enriching notes throughout on the origins and context of the foods and dishes. Here, however, the menus represent actual meals that Bettoja enjoyed in variously grand or aristocratic private homes (she doesn't say where she got the appended pasta puttanesca, though); and the recipes—from the Sicilian signature pasta with fresh sardines to that island's inspired sweet-ricotta desserts— are family treasures she wheedled out of her hosts or their prized resident cooks. The recipes themselves are not especially imposing, though there are several special-occasion dishes you wouldn't want to tackle on an average Wednesday. The whole enterprise smacks a bit of the ``kitchens of the rich and famous'' approach (though, in fact, these cooks never allowed Bettoja into their kitchens), but then we've had a lot of the simple pleasures of the poor, so here's one for the Lampedusa following.
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1991
ISBN: 0-553-07287-0
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1991
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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