It is all Luisa Del Sorbo’s fault! We had been coming back from Croatia when Luisa asked me to design a publishing project. At first, I was not sure ( some days before, I turned down another similar request ) but then she convinced me to do it. I was not able to say no!
Everytime I start living a very quiet retired life, fishing, riding on a bike, visiting friends, somebody persuade me to tell anything about cooking world. If we talk about cooking, food, and special people of the catering world, we will say that is all cut out for me. So, I start magically typing while my fingers are becoming a special tools to tell distant memories of my past.
I spent my entire life in a restaurant ( I visited more than 9000 restaurants ), not only tasting delicacies, but sharing with everybody this “wide world” too. It may be considered as a giant stage where waiters, guests and chefs play their role every day.
The food is one of the most important things in Italy, because unlike other countries, we have got a very high food culture. Italy is the largest producer of vegetables, animals and plants in the World. Even hunger and poverty let our mothers to cook a lot of special meals which can be found on our tables today.
I had been thinking about what I would like write when I thought about the large number of young chefs who are currently bringing their best out, speaking on television, writing for newspapers. So, I realised I would have written something about the ’60s and ’70s, when italian cooking was growing up rapidly. Most of you, I suspect, have probably heard their name before, but this could be a very interesting way for many others of becoming interested in italian cooking and people who marked this big and curious world. A lot of them are deeply ingrained in italian cooking world, thanks to their boundless passion for cooking and territory…sometimes, making nothing special too.
I won’t talk just about that. There is always something special one can tell about cooking world, ever. So, I have only to clear my mind and let it travel through time.

Fausto Arrighi