I really wanted to like Faith Willinger’s Adventures of an Italian food lover.   Recipes from 254 chefs all over "The Boot"  collected by a woman in Florence, Italy famous for writing about the best of its native restaurants and cuisine, charmingly illustrated with water colors of the featured chefs and food.    It seemed like a sure thing.

It’s hard to say where Willinger went wrong.    Some of the recipes do sound utterly delicious and wonderful.   But not at all unlike things I already know how to make.    Certainly,  my cooking could be improved by using some of the excellent local ingredients chefs in Tuscany have to work with, but for me and for most cook book readers,  our access to these ingredients will be non-existent or rare and very expensive.  The good recipes don’t tell us anything particularly new or helpful about making things we already know how to make well.

And then there were the recipes that were very different from anything I’ve ever made and were genuinely new to me.    Unfortunately they all just kind of made me go "eeeewww"  or "ehhhhh".   And I thought that even if I did have all of the ingredients I would never, ever be making them.   So if you read cook books for recipes and ideas,  I would definitely say give this one a pass.   On the other hand if you contemplate or plan a gastronomic tour of Italy,  you should be clicking on the book cover NOW! * because a local’s recommendation of the best little mom and pop places to eat in Italy complete with addresses and telephone numbers is Exactly the sort of book somebody heading to Italy for the purpose of eating is going to want to check out.   For _that_ reader this book is Highly Recommended.

*and assuming Worldcat shows that a copy is available from your library, clicking through to enter your library card number and password so that the book will be set aside and held for you as soon as it becomes available.   (Savvy patrons browse the catalog from home online and let the drones errr  helpful library staff locate and fetch their choices, which they may not even check out if on inspection the book is not as suited to their needs as they thought from the limited information in the catalog.   If your library has many savvy patrons and or an under-budgeted and over-worked staff there may be limits on the number of holds you can place.   In many libraries you pick up holds in a self service area near the check out counters.   Many libraries also have self check out stations to speed you on your way,  although staff are usually available and happy to check things out for you if you don’t like using the self service machines.)

**You did know you could click on any book cover to get it from the library, didn’t you?