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| The Silver Spoon | 
 enlarge | Creator: Various Contributors
Publisher: Phaidon Press Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £24.95
Buy New: £16.17
You Save: £8.78 (35%)
New (18) from £15.68
Avg. Customer Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 468
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1264
Shipping Weight (lbs): 6.2
Dimensions (in): 10.7 x 7.6 x 2.4
ISBN: 0714844675
Dewey Decimal Number: 641
EAN: 9780714844671
ASIN: 0714844675
Publication Date: October 14, 2005
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Simply superb! The best Italian book I possess. January 16, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I am a real foodie and think I could open a cook book shop with the amount of books I have. However, the Silver Spoon is certainly a top favourite of mine. I can cook but often want inspiration when faced with cooking another mid week family dinner. That is when the Silver Spoon really comes into its own. I have learnt so many new and tasty ways of cooking vegetables, for example by soaking pre sliced carrots in water for 15 minutes you can cook them for 10 - 15 minutes in a pan with no water. The result is superb as they are not too soggy or al dente but perfect. You can then add flavourants such as sliced garlic or lemon zest, butter etc to complement the carrots with the main dish.
A Italian friend who lives in Nairobi, Kenya recently came to stay and she was so impressed with the Silver Spoon being in English and now being available that I gave her my copy as we did not have time to order another copy on-line and our local book shop was sold out. I realised then how much I missed the book when it was not in my kitchen for a few weeks. Luckily my new copy has arrived.
One does however, need to know how to cook to use the book with ease. It assumes that you know how to do the basics and there are no photographs and pretty pictures. But if you can cook, invest in the Silver Spoon and you will use it every day in your kitchen. A sound investment! Highly recommended.
 Terrible translation November 20, 2007
22 out of 27 found this review helpful
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
a gift from my Italian godparent August 14, 2007
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
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.
This is THE Italian Cookbook June 22, 2007
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
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.
 Excellent reference work March 26, 2007
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
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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