Books : The Silver Spoon

Rating: - Terrible translation
The original is indeed an Italian classic.
The problem is the extremely lazy English translation. Italian cook books are full of terms such as 'add the right amount of' and 'until cooked'.
They have attempted to provide quantities and cooking times for the English version but the vast majority are way off. It is obvious that they have never tested the recipes. For example: in one chapter they advise boiling green beans for up to 20 minutes! Later in the same paragraph they warn about overcooking!

They haven't even bothered to list the chapters in English alphabetical order. The chapter titles are translated, but appear in the original (Italian alphabetical) order. This means that artichokes(carciofi in Italian) appear after broccoli! Unforgivable laziness on the part of the publishers

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Rating: - a gift from my Italian godparent
This book as I said was a gift from my Italian godparent - she recommended it as the next best thing to having her or any of her friends in my kitchen with me. This book is often given in Italy as a "1st cookbook" for new brides! Unlike some books that give a step by step guide and pictures this book allows you to follow but innovate. I agree it is a very good reference book on Italian cooking.

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Rating: - This is THE Italian Cookbook
I have collected cookbooks my entire life, and inherited a large collection from my mother and my grandmothers....... Italian food is one area where I had always been disappointed in the past, the books I had previously bought produced the food you get in restaurants, but not the home made taste of Italy ..... This book is different, this book encompasses all that is Italy, authentic home cooked flavours with professional finishes and know how.... when we are at our home in America we eat out in restaurants a lot, and I find myself craving real food - and that is what it is given here real food that tastes good, looks good and satisfies like no other and such clear step by step recipies I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone wanting to cook great italian food.

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Rating: - Excellent reference work
Bought for me as a gift (having previously exclusively used Larousse as a recipe source). Too many recipes to ever approach making them all, but I agree that its greatest value is as a reference of method, rather than following all the recipes verbatim.

I would have given it 5 stars, but the only cookbook worthy of that accolade (in my opinion) is Larousse.

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Rating: - Save your money
I got the Silverspoon as a gift and get rid of it.
Don't buy this book. You will hardly do all the recipes. It's chunky and overall all the recipes I tried tasted very bad.
The most annoying thing is that in many recipes the quantity of the ingredients is completely wrong.

If you want a real book on italian cuisine then buy Made in Italy by Giorgio Locatelli. That one plus any from G.Ramsey and you are ready to rock with some pans.