Italian cookbook: Eataly

A thick cooking bible that is reminiscent of the Silver Spoon, but which has a very different tradition. Where does Eataly come from? And what do we get with this exclusive, new Italian cookbook?

The restaurant chain Eataly

Eataly is a restaurant chain from Italy that is also on the rise abroad. They are already releasing their cookbook and thus seem to be paving the way for the chain's arrival in the Netherlands. About this is already speculated on the internet. Good and cheap real Italian food. The Dutch are well aware of that. You can find all kinds of things about a franchise: it is nice to find the same familiarity with a concept everywhere, but it expresses creativity and individuality and contrasts with a family business, a personal idea, the personal touch of a restaurant owner. However, Italy also does not escape franchises and really not every Italian abhors Starbucks.

Modern Italian: less, less, less!

Back to the cookbook. This reference book focuses on modern Italian cuisine. Less creamy bechamel sauces, fewer stews to simmer for eight hours and less gluten-rich 00 flour. Less, less, less!

The rich Italian tradition is set aside a bit. It does contain, for example, a beautiful salad of red chicory, grapes, figs and some Italian delicacies, which are easily digestible, tasty and healthy.

The modern Italian also wants risottos with pearl barley instead of arborio rice and an egg-free one omelette. that egg-free omelette turns out to be an Italian pancake made from cornmeal and soy milk with spinach and carrot. There is some rhetorical temptation in the presentation of the dishes that some people cannot resist.

Also nice is a revaluation of traditional dishes that turn out to fit completely in the modern frame. Then I think, for example, of the pizza crust of buckwheat flour. Nice to try.

The efficient kitchen

568 pages of cooking pleasure with a fresh and transparent design: the delicious-looking dishes all seem to be portrayed on a green screen, after which a soothing wallpaper has been pasted behind. It feels a bit sterile, it's not the warm messy one kitchen of La Nonna, but a handbook for working Italians who are businesslike and to-the-point.

No photos or stories about people or history, jokes, anecdotes or crafts, but a businesslike, tidy and easily digestible lunch that is hip and efficient. Efficient is not usually the adjective I associate with Italy, but it is something admired in Italy.

Usually they talk about the far North, but Eataly is also efficient. And they are proud of that.

A little bit of myself and a little bit of…

Alright, it may be that the slant does not quite match my preferences, I can easily present dishes in the way I want. This is how I made a delicious barley soup with cavolo nero, an romanesquetartlet, chicken with grapes, cabbage millefeuille and savoy cabbage strudels. Warm winter dishes that also find their place in my house, albeit sometimes with the addition of my own creativity to give it just a little more character.

A little bit of myself and a little bit of… Eataly!

Eataly: contemporary Italian cooking
by: Eataly
568 pages
€ 45
Spectrum, October 2017
ISBN 9789000356867