A fairy tale, a sea, 40 recipes and wines, a realistic photographic technique and dozens of plates drawn by hand. A cookbook that is a tribute to the Mediterranean Sea and an illustrated recipe book for the whole family. A legendary fish, a great chef who is almost a magician, a perfect recipe to find, deadly missions around the Mediterranean Sea on board a small boat are some of the ingredients, it is appropriate to say, of the tale that makes the De Mari Nostro – De piscatus re coquinaria by Roberto Abbadati not only a cookbook.
The protagonist is the chef Romeo who, thanks to the stories of a mysterious scientist grandfather, is aware of the existence of an ancient fish, Nomadillo Strale Mediterraneus (nicknamed Ulysses), existing in the Mediterranean now in a single specimen. It’s the best fish in the world, but its meat is deadly: those who eat it can’t survive, but would have time to taste flavors and scents so delicious that, actually, maybe won’t regret to die“. Romeo begins to hunt this rare fish and especially the perfect recipe to be able to cook it, knowing that this would bring both to death. Or maybe not. In his journey by boat Romeo will touch all the lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea and in each he will seek out the recipes that enhance the delicate and precious flavors of the many species of fishes.
Another feature of this volume is the technique used for the photographs. The photographers explain: Ignoring how fishes see things, we opted for a solution which was not easy to build, but that gave us somehow the perception of a natural vision…We therefore thought it would be more truthful to thread the camera inside a glass bowl (half-filled with water), inclined on the underlying dish. We obtained an image without deliberately precise fires and with different degrees of deformation, often caused precisely by the same bowl, as if the food has been seen from the eyes of our Ulysses friend!
Photography, post production and graphic by Alberto Mancini and Alberto Petrò and translation in English by Davide Mancini.
Languages: English and Italian
Edition: 2014
