100 books like How Italian Food Conquered the World

By John F. Mariani,

Here are 100 books that How Italian Food Conquered the World fans have personally recommended if you like How Italian Food Conquered the World. Shepherd is a community of 11,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States

Ian MacAllen Author Of Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American

From my list on when you’re hungering for history.

Why am I passionate about this?

My wife and I were at a red sauce joint in the West Village of Manhattan drinking a bit of wine when we posed the question: who invented all this? We knew Italian American food didn’t look all that much like the food we ate in Italy. Later, at home, I started Googling for answers. None were satisfactory. I read a few books before finding myself at the New York Public library sleuthing through JSTOR. After examining my notes, I said to myself, “oh, I guess I’m writing a book.”

Ian's book list on when you’re hungering for history

Ian MacAllen Why did Ian love this book?

Chinese American food has a rich history, and Andrew Coe explores the arrival of the cuisine in America, how it adapts, and how it is popularized across the country. The book focuses on restaurant culture and recipes, and Coe explains the origins of many dishes like chop suey and how and when the dishes grew into mainstream success, part of a broader American cuisine. The way Coe discusses Chinese American food is similar to how I write about Italian American food in my book. 

By Andrew Coe,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Chop Suey as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1784, passengers on the ship Empress of China became the first Americans to land in China, and the first to eat Chinese food. Today, the United States is home to more Chinese restaurants than any other ethnic cuisine. In this authoritative new history, author Andrew Coe traces the fascinating story of America's centuries-long encounter with Chinese food. CHOP SUEY tells how we went from believing that Chinese meals contained dogs and rats to making
regular pilgrimages to the neighborhood chop suey parlor. From China, the book follows the story to the American West, where both Chinese and their food…


Book cover of Pastrami on Rye: An Overstuffed History of the Jewish Deli

Ian MacAllen Author Of Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American

From my list on when you’re hungering for history.

Why am I passionate about this?

My wife and I were at a red sauce joint in the West Village of Manhattan drinking a bit of wine when we posed the question: who invented all this? We knew Italian American food didn’t look all that much like the food we ate in Italy. Later, at home, I started Googling for answers. None were satisfactory. I read a few books before finding myself at the New York Public library sleuthing through JSTOR. After examining my notes, I said to myself, “oh, I guess I’m writing a book.”

Ian's book list on when you’re hungering for history

Ian MacAllen Why did Ian love this book?

The Jewish-style delicatessen is one of the great gifts to food enthusiasts. Merwin’s extensive history details how Jewish immigrant cuisine arrived in America and evolved from an object of ethnic foreignness into part of mainstream culture. There are a large number of parallels between Jewish immigrant and Italian immigrant experiences, especially centered on food in places like New York City’s Lower East Side, where both groups congregated. Merwin mixes in pop cultural references alongside deep research. My favorite detail Merwin revealed was that by 1926, New York City had more than 900 different sandwich combinations.

By Ted Merwin,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Pastrami on Rye as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Winner of the 2015 National Jewish Book Award in Education and Jewish Identity from the Jewish Book Council
The history of an iconic food in Jewish American culture
For much of the twentieth century, the New York Jewish deli was an iconic institution in both Jewish and American life. As a social space it rivaled-and in some ways surpassed-the synagogue as the primary gathering place for the Jewish community. In popular culture it has been the setting for classics like When Harry Met Sally. And today, after a long period languishing in the trenches of the hopelessly old-fashioned, it is…


Book cover of My Korean Deli: Risking It All for a Convenience Store

Ian MacAllen Author Of Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American

From my list on when you’re hungering for history.

Why am I passionate about this?

My wife and I were at a red sauce joint in the West Village of Manhattan drinking a bit of wine when we posed the question: who invented all this? We knew Italian American food didn’t look all that much like the food we ate in Italy. Later, at home, I started Googling for answers. None were satisfactory. I read a few books before finding myself at the New York Public library sleuthing through JSTOR. After examining my notes, I said to myself, “oh, I guess I’m writing a book.”

Ian's book list on when you’re hungering for history

Ian MacAllen Why did Ian love this book?

Corner grocery stores are everywhere in New York City, but most of the time we never really think very hard about them. Ben Ryder Howe on the other hand, drew on his own experience running the family bodega. The store he ran was on the border between a rapidly gentrifying section of Brooklyn and a neighborhood with public housing. The changing customer base meant his store shelves began to gentrify like the neighborhood around him, but as he soon learned, too many changes too quickly are bad for business. Part memoir, part researched journalism, Ryder Howe provides a fascinating look into a New York City staple. 

By Ben Ryder Howe,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked My Korean Deli as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

It starts with a gift, when Ben Ryder Howe's wife, the daughter of Korean immigrants, decides to repay her parents' self-sacrifice by buying them a store. Howe, an editor at the rarefied Paris Review, agrees to go along. Things soon become a lot more complicated. After the business struggles, Howe finds himself living in the basement of his in-laws' Staten Island home, commuting to the Paris Review offices in George Plimpton's Upper East Side townhouse by day, and heading to Brooklyn at night to slice cold cuts and peddle lottery tickets. "My Korean Deli" follows the store's tumultuous life span,…


Book cover of The Italian Baker: The Classic Tastes of the Italian Countryside--Its Breads, Pizza, Focaccia, Cakes, Pastries, and Cookies

Rick Rodgers

From my list on baking for at home bakers.

Why am I passionate about this?

Rick Rodgers is an award-winning culinary teacher and cookbook writer who has made a specialty of books on baked goods. His book Kaffehaus explores the delicious sweets of the Austro-Hungarian coffee culture. With two of America’s most iconic bakeries, he is the co-author of The Model Bakery Cookbook and Sarabeth's Bakery, as well as Coffee And Cake, Tea And Cookies, and Williams-Sonoma Comfort Food.

Rick's book list on baking for at home bakers

Rick Rodgers Why did Rick love this book?

This book literally changed home baking forever by making artisan breads accessible to the amateur cook. It was the first time that many of us saw recipes for the rustic breads with crackling brown crusts and moist, hole-ridden interiors that were before only available at specialty bakeries. All books are a labor of love, but I can’t imagine the determination an American woman must have had to wrestle the original recipes from Italian masters.

By Carol Field, Ed Anderson (photographer),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Italian Baker as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The only comprehensive book, in English or Italian, to cover the entire range of Italian baking, from breadsticks and cornetti to focaccia, tarts, cakes, and pastries. This latest edition, updated for a new generation of home bakers, has added four-color photography throughout, plus new recipes, ingredients and equipment sections, source guides, and weights. 

Carol Field introduces artisanal doughs and techniques used by generations of Italian bakers. Every city and hill town has its own unique baking traditions, and Field spent more than two years traversing Italy to capture the regional and local specialties, adapting them through rigorous testing in her…


Book cover of The Talisman Italian Cookbook

Elisabeth Luard Author Of European Peasant Cookery

From my list on cookbooks published at moments of change.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a home cook, not a restaurant chef. I add a pinch of this and splash of that. As a chronicler of other people's culinary habits, I need to understand why we cook the way we do. At its simplest and most basic, what goes into the ancestral cooking-pot depends on who we are, where we live, and where we come from. Which is why whenever we want to remind ourselves who we are, we look for traditional recipes in culinary bibles produced at moments of change. I was born at a moment of change myself, in bombed-out London in 1941, at the height of the Blitz.  

Elisabeth's book list on cookbooks published at moments of change

Elisabeth Luard Why did Elisabeth love this book?

Ada Boni's culinary bible, Il talismano della felicità, first saw the light of day in 1928, six years after Benito Mussolini had succeeded in uniting Italy's quarrelsome regions under the banner of fascism.

Specifically targeted at the nation's housewives - ordinary folk on whose support El Duce rose to power in 1922 - this collection of nearly a thousand simple, practical traditional recipes for regional dishes became the dictator's favourite cookbook, as it did for generations of Italian women (still does). 

I first came across it on an Italian friend's recommendation while researching European Peasant Cookery and attempting to unravel the complicated traditions of a land that remains as fiercely partisan in the kitchen now as then. 

By Ada Boni, Matilde La Rosa (translator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Talisman Italian Cookbook as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Il Talismano is and has been for over 50 years the one great standard Italian cookbook. It is to Italians what Joy of Cooking is to Americans. Containing in simple and clear form the best recipes for all the foods that we associate with Italian cuisine, it covers all the regional variations of Italian cooking: Milanese, Bolognese, Venetian, Neapolitan, Sicilian, Veronese, and Florentine.

Appetizers range from the simply elegant, like Cantaloupe and Prosciutto and Artichoke Hearts in Olive Oil, to the sublime, like Tunnied Veal and Crostini of Mozzarella and Anchovies. Soups include Stracciatella, Fish Brodetto Rimini Style, and Tuscan…


Book cover of The Tuscan Sun Cookbook: Recipes from Our Italian Kitchen

Melody Carlson Author Of Looking for Leroy

From my list on vineyards.

Why am I passionate about this?

The first time I visited a vineyard was as a child with my mother and grandparents. Driving to San Francisco from Oregon, we stopped to tour a Sonoma vineyard and winery there. Later, as a young adult touring Western Europe, I became intrigued by the vineyards there. Something about the beauty of gently rolling slopes of green vines tugged on me. And I found the science and art of winemaking fascinating. Even the history of wine-making is noteworthy. And I love that Jesus’ first miracle was transforming ordinary water into extraordinary wine. So using the setting of a vineyard for my novel just felt right. And it was a fun adventure!

Melody's book list on vineyards

Melody Carlson Why did Melody love this book?

What better way to transport ourselves to a different place than by food. I love how Frances and Edward share simple traditional Tuscan recipes in this cookbook. Things you can actually concoct in your own kitchen, and you know they’re tried and true. These recipes make me want to drag a long table outside, set lanterns and flowers upon it, invite some friends and neighbors, then bring out generous platters of pasta and ragu and chewy bread and... a fine bottle of wine... and just enjoy!

By Frances Mayes, Edward Mayes, Steven Rothfeld (photographer)

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Tuscan Sun Cookbook as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

“Tuscan food tastes like itself. Ingredients are left to shine. . . . So, if on your visit, I hand you an apron, your work will be easy. We’ll start with primo ingredients, a little flurry of activity, perhaps a glass of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, and soon we’ll be carrying platters out the door. We’ll have as much fun setting the table as we have in the kitchen. Four double doors along the front of the house open to the outside—so handy for serving at a long table under the stars (or for cooling a scorched pan on the…


Book cover of Under the Tuscan Sun

Sarah Lahey Author Of Kat Girl

From my list on your relationship is failing while renovating.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love writing books that feature buildings and construction as a backdrop to life. I’ve worked as an interior designer for over 30 years, and now I teach design at a university in Sydney. Our homes offer so much more than four walls and a roof. They provide us with comfort and shelter. They offer security and stability. They help us stay sane and grounded in a sometimes confusing and turbulent world. I don’t think the importance of our homes can be underestimated.

Sarah's book list on your relationship is failing while renovating

Sarah Lahey Why did Sarah love this book?

Most romance readers know that this story is about a run-down villa in Tuscany and a heartbroken heroine (Frances Mayes) struggling to build a life after her divorce. But read the book for the beautiful descriptions of the countryside, the delicious food and wine, and the gorgeous accounts of village life—the markets, the frescos, the fading sunlight!

This memoir is not just a restoration journey; it’s a book about finding yourself. 

By Frances Mayes,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked Under the Tuscan Sun as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Discover the New York Times bestseller that inspired the film. The perfect read for anyone seeking an escape to the Italian countryside.

When Frances Mayes - poet, gourmet cook and travel writer - buys an abandoned villa in Tuscany, she has no idea of the scale of the project she is embarking on.

In this enchanting memoir she takes the reader on a journey to restore a crumbling villa and build a new life in the Italian countryside, navigating hilarious cultural misunderstandings, legal frustrations and the challenges of renovating a house that seems determined to remain a ruin.

Filled with…


Book cover of Bitter Honey: Recipes and Stories from the Island of Sardinia

Haniyeh Nikoo Author Of A Persian Kitchen Tale: Discover Exciting Flavors Through 60 Simple Recipes

From my list on cookbooks that are made easy to travel the world.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am Haniyeh Nikoo, a full-time recipe developer, food stylist, and food photographer.

My passion for food does not stop at my Iranian roots but goes beyond the borders. It is my way of experiencing and learning about the world, cultures, and people. I not only care about how a dish tastes but also how it looks and how it invites you to take a bite and get on a journey of trying something new.

Haniyeh's book list on cookbooks that are made easy to travel the world

Haniyeh Nikoo Why did Haniyeh love this book?

I love this cookbook for how it makes me feel. It’s filled with authentic recipes from Sardinia (An island between Europe and Africa) that are presented like a poem to touch your soul and invite you to sit at a table that makes you feel warm, cozy, and welcomed.

The book contains various recipes for any occasion, and stunning images and engaging stories make it something beyond an ordinary cookbook!

By Letitia Clark,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Bitter Honey as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Guild of Food Writer's Awards, Highly Commended in 'First Book' category (2021)

In Bitter Honey, seasoned chef Letitia Clark invites us into her home on one of the most beautiful islands in the Mediterranean Sea - Sardinia.

The recipes in this book do not take long to make, but you can taste the ethos behind every one of them - one which invites you to slow down, and nourish yourself with fresh food, friends and family.

The importance of eating well is even more pronounced here on this forgotten island. Try your hand at Roasted Aubergines with Honey, Mint, Garlic…


Book cover of The Sicily Cookbook: Authentic Recipes from a Mediterranean Island

Anika Scott Author Of Sinners of Starlight City

From my list on sparking an obsession with Sicily.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been a traveler and a dreamer ever since I was a little girl. I used to write to the tourism bureaus of different countries and tape pictures of faraway places onto the walls of my bedroom. It’s no surprise I ended up living in Europe, my home base for excursions all over the world. My historical fiction always features places that mean a lot to me, whether it’s Germany (where I live now), or Sicily – where my mother’s family came from. Digging into my Sicilian heritage and the culture and life of the island for my third novel was like discovering a new home.

Anika's book list on sparking an obsession with Sicily

Anika Scott Why did Anika love this book?

Every time I’m in Sicily, I stuff my face.

The food is as sublime as the island itself. Imagine eating pasta alla norma (noodles with eggplant marinara) with a breathtaking view of Mt. Etna. There’s fried arancini filled with rice, there’s caponata, there’s orange cake... I could go on and on! The Sicily Cookbook has recipes for some of my favorite Sicilian foods plus stunning photos of the island.

It's food and travel combined!

By Cettina Vicenzino,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Sicily Cookbook as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Get a taste of the unique fusion of flavors that Sicilian food has to offer!

​Packed with more than 70 Sicilian recipes, all accompanied by evocative food photography from the island, this Italian cookbook will bring the Mediterranean sunshine into your kitchen.

Discover authentic Italian cooking at its finest with this Sicilian recipe book. Here’s what’s inside:

   • More than 70 Sicilian sweet and savory recipes, from Pasta Alla Norma, grilled octopus and Sicilian baked sausage to arancini with tuna, Jerusalem artichokes with black lentils and Sicilian orange bread
   • Recipes include appetizers, main courses, individual dishes, side dishes, desserts…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Italy, cooking, and Rome?

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