Abstract

As an Italian from the South, I have been socialized to care a lot about cooking. Quality of the food is a fundamental starting point for a successful result; in addition, you need expertise in food preparation and the capacity to balance dishes together in a single meal, from appetizer to dessert. I find Isabella Sarto-Jackson’s book The Making and Breaking of Mind a very nice meal with good-quality food prepared with expert hands, but the dish balance is a bit unsatisfying. I find dishes not always coherently combined with the general style of the meal, starting with the appetizer. A good appetizer would tell you what you should expect from the overall meal and would make you crave for tasting the rest. Instead, the book’s introduction and the first chapter seem to promise something different and does not give you a satisfactory idea of what you will read later. This is a pity, because overall the meal is quite nice, and most of the dishes delicious.