In 1891, Pellegrino Artusi, a 71-year-old retired silk merchant, gave up on trying to find a publisher for his cookbook, La Scienza in Cucina e L'Arte di Mangiar Bene (The Science of cookery and the Art of Eating Well), and self-published it. It took him four years to sell a thousand copies.The next edition sold faster, so he increased the print-run of the third. Then, a miracle happened: The book was discovered by the middle class. Sales skyrocketed, and continue undiminished to this day. L'Artusi, as the book is called in Italy, is a household icon, a source of inspiration for generations of cooks, a family heirloom passed from mother to daughter.
March 30th will be the hundredth anniversary Pellegrino Artusi's death, which came a few months after he published the 15th edition in 1910. To honor Artusi my friend and colleague Leonardo Romanelli has organized a five-day pilgrimage from Artusi's native Forlimpopoli to the cemetery where he rests in Florence; we'll be in 8, all food writers, walking about 20 miles per day, talking Artusi (and the foods of Tuscany and Romagna), dining in places he might have been familiar with, and enjoying his recipes. It should be interesting, instructive, and a lot of fun, and I will keep you posted.
We depart from Casa Artusi in Forlimpopoli on March 25, and should be in Florence March 30.
More about Artusi, and my translation of his book (which is, alas, out of print).
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