“How We Fell In Love With Italian Food”: A Conversation with Prof Diego Zancani

The event will be a conversation with Diego Zancani (Emeritus Professor in Italian, Fellow of Balliol College) around his book “How We Fell In Love With Italian Food” (Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2019). Shortlisted in the Guild of Food Writers First Food Book Award, the book maps the extraordinary progress of Italian food, from the legacy of the Roman invasion to its current, ever-increasing popularity. Using medieval manuscripts, it traces Italian recipes in Britain back as early as the thirteenth century, and it explores encounters with Italian food and its influence back home through travel diaries. It also reflects on the extent to which Italian immigrants had a transformative influence on our cuisine. The book contains a remarkable selection of illustrations from the archives of the Bodleian Library and the John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera, as well as Italian regional recipes that have come down to us through the centuries. Erudite, elegant, academically rigorous, and impassioned, “How We Fell in Love With Italian Food” is a remarkable, deeply informative and enjoyable journey through Italian food.