Made in Italy: Food and Stories [Paperback]

I've got tens of Italian cookbooks and this is the one I would fight to keep. It's all well and good having 40 recipes for courgettes a la 'Silver Spoon', but good food is so much more than join-the-dots recipes. It's about fantastic ingredients and people and ideas and places and inspiration and stories and passion. 'Made in Italy' is all of these things tied together with beautiful photography by the obscenely multi-talented Dan Leppard.

Technically, there isn't anything in here that a confident amateur couldn't tackle. Some of it is time consuming, as good food can be, but there's certainly nothing here on the timescale and complexity of a French cassoulet. Some of the recipes are involved, but I want that in a cookbook. If all you ever do is make bruschetta, minestrone and pasta al forno then you will eat well but your cooking will probably never improve. If you don't want a challenge and don't want to spend a happy Saturday afternoon in the kitchen hand-making tortellini or perfecting the epic cannoli di ricotta then fair enough. Stick with, say, 'Jamie's Italy': an excellent, easy to follow introduction to Italian cooking that covers all of the classics.

The recipes are all outstanding, as you would expect from a chef of Locatelli's reputation. He delights in passing on his expertise and writes with warmth, honesty and humour. What really shines is the depth of background information on ingredients and dishes, and the detailed explanations of why things are done just so. I learned more about risotto, for example, from 'Made in Italy' than from the rest of my Italian food books put together. It's this fundamental understanding of what a dish is about that will make you a better cook. Much better.

Locatelli uses authentic ingedients and this is how it should be. What fits the dish fits the dish. Not all of these ingredients are readily available from your local Happy Shopper but he usually suggests alternatives, for example substituting Sardinian Ovinfort cheese (Google hits 241) with Gorgonzola (3,710,000). Of course if you want to make bottarga salad then you're going to need a slab of bottarga and that's what the Internet is for. The book is north-centric and better for it. It specialises. Italian food is not just pasta, oil and tomatoes whatever Saturday Kitchen would have you think.

If you want a workhorse book of recipes then get 'Silver Spoon', or on a smaller scale Elizabeth David's 'Italian Food' or Oliver's 'Jamie's Italy'. 'Made in Italy' is so much more than a recipe book. If you want to come that bit closer to understanding Italy and its food and people then buy Locatelli's book, read it and love it.

I have not been able to put this book down (and believe me, it's very heavy!) since I received it a couple of weeks ago. It is a wonderful mixture of recipes, detailed descriptions of distinctive ingredients like parmesan, olive oil and pasta and stories and reminiscences from Giorgio's life. While it is eminently practical, it also includes recipes for many signature dishes from Locanda Locatelli as well as shortcuts and adaptations for cooking at home.

Along with Marcella Hazan's 'Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking', you could not have a better guide to Italian food.

I bought this book on a whim whilst on holiday and now find myself reading it from cover to cover. The whole concept is to put the food and the chef in context; the book reads like no other cookery book I have come across. A whole range of ingredients are explained in short essays throughout the book (eg olives, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, parmesan etc). The recipes are split into starters, soups, risotto, fish, meat, pasta and deserts. In amongst the essays and recipes are wonderful photographs and short autobiographical vignettes from Locatelli.

I also have the excellent 'Sliver Spoon', but it is eclipsed by 'Made in Italy'. The former is a huge repository of recipes, listed in exhaustive detail. Locatelli's book on the other hand takes you back to the origins of the food, where it comes from, how it is produced and what to look out for in the market and deli. My wife is currently in food heaven - I find the recipes easy to follow and yes some of the ingredients are a little difficult to get (especially in the West Highlands!) but using your common sense you can easliy find substitutes.

This is without question an instant classic, destined to be a well used kitchen companion for the future. I like one posted idea of having one for the kitchen and one for the coffee table - I would add a third copy for an emergency present. Anyone who enjoys food will appreciate this book immensely. Now I only have to decide which recipe to attempt this weekend...........