Ismail Merchant's Florence: Filming and Feasting in Tuscany/70 Recipes

by Ismail Merchant, Derrick Santini (Photographer)

NOW IN PAPERBACK Florence is a worthy setting for Ismail Merchant, whether filming or feasting. He is the very model of a Renaissance man. . . . When Catherine de Médicis married the King of France, she brought her Florentine cooks with her and introduced Paris to the essentials of Tuscan the simple harmony of the best and most fresh of every ingredient. Like Catherine, Ismail opens new worlds to his friends, his guests, and his audiences. Dame Maggie Smith Ismail Merchant s lively account of the filming of the hugely successful A Room with a View is really a song in praise of the Tuscan table. Through vivid prose and extraordinary photographs, Merchant enables the reader to fully experience Tuscan cuisine whether dining at Florence s famous Il Cavallino restaurant or in the stately Villa Maiano, whether enjoying a picnic spread out on a hillside or sampling the fruit and vegetables fresh from the farms that give Tuscan cooking its incomparable quality. To satisfy readers inevitable hunger, Merchant provides 70 recipes, from antipasti to desserts, that can be prepared successfully in any kitchen, anywhere.

Genres: Cookbooks, Italian Literature, Cooking, Italy

152 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1994

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

How many movie producers cook for their cast and crew when shooting on location? Ismail Merchant does, as is recorded in his curious book "Ismail Merchant's Florence: Filming and Feasting in Tuscany." The first half of the book is a sometimes rhapsodic description of how they turned E.M. Forster's novel "A Room with a View" into a 1985 movie. The film was nominated for eight Oscars and won three. The story is interrupted by short essays by the cast and crew in their own words. Merchant dotes on the meals they ate in and around Florence and admits to the foods which he prepared himself on location. The second half of the book is given over to a collection of seventy recipes, of the sort extolled in the text. They are simple (sometimes too simple) and leave out details which are important to beginning cooks. Yet they all are likely to produce reasonably magical approximations of the food of Tuscany.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

All about the making of one of my very favorite movies (also one of my favorite books), "A Room With a View." Came with great behind-the-scenes photos, and also some recipes. I haven't tried any of the recipes, since I was still a teenager when I read the book, but perhaps now I will.

[Caro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having just returned from Florence, and having just re-watched the film, I found this absolutely delightful. As much about food as it is about the movie.

[Emily D · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's all about Tuscany, no doubt.