Naples at Table

Naples at Table: Cooking in Campania
AuthorArthur Schwartz
LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Publication date
1998
Publication placeUnited States
ISBN978-0-060-18261-8

Naples at Table: Cooking in Campania is a 1998 cookbook by the American food writer and radio personality Arthur Schwartz. Published by HarperCollins, the book details the cuisine of Campania, a region in southern Italy that has the city of Naples as its capital.[1] Across its pages, Schwartz allotted substantial space to pasta and pizza, dishes popularly associated with the region. Other classes of dishes covered included desserts, fried foods, and meat.[1] In all, Naples at Table contains 250 recipes.[2]

Naples at Table was published at a time when American publishers were releasing numerous books on Mediterranean and particularly Italian cooking, marketing them as promoting weight loss.[3] Simultaneously, Naples at Table came as a wave of what John F. Mariani described as "authoritative ethnic works on regional cookery of various parts of the world, especially Italy and France" ended.[4] The cuisine of southern Italy had been little covered in these cookbooks, and its elements were poorly understood among American readers.[5][6] With the book's publication, Neapolitan cuisine became a trend in New York, and Italian restaurants responded by modifying their menus.[7]

In Great Books for Cooks, a 1999 Ballantine Books publication, Naples at Table was complimented for its research and "reporterly" approach.[5] Anecdotes and the section on desserts were praised in Publishers Weekly as entertaining.[1] Anne Mendelson in Gourmet magazine gave the book an enthusiastic review, describing it as "Arthur Schwartz's king-size introduction to Italian cooking", and characterized its content on Campania and recipes as equally engaging. The review closed with the proclamation "This is as close as you can get to total immersion in Naples by reading and cooking."[8] In the Los Angeles Times, assessments of the book as entertaining and engaging were agreed with, and additional descriptors of "funny, thoughtful, and unabashedly personal" were provided.[6] Further positive reviews came from Nach Waxman in the 2000 Alfred A. Knopf publication The New Cooks' Catalogue,[9] the Chicago Tribune,[10] and the trade publication Nation's Restaurant News.[2]

The book was praised by the food writers John Thorne,[11] Carla Capalbo,[12] Erica De Mane,[13] and Jeffrey Steingarten.[14] It was nominated for a James Beard Cookbook Award in the International Category[15] and spent at least two weeks on the Los Angeles Times Cookbook Hot List.[16]

See also

Italian cookbooks:

References

  1. ^ a b c "Naples at Table". Publishers Weekly. October 5, 1999. pp. 84.
  2. ^ a b Schrader, Michael (February 22, 1999). "Try a taste of traditional Italian cuisine from NYC's master chefs". Nation's Restaurant News. Vol. 33, no. 8. p. 94.
  3. ^ Mariani, John F (2011). How Italian Food Conquered the World. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 211. ISBN 978-0-230-10439-6.
  4. ^ Mariani, John F. (1999). The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink. New York: Lebhar-Friedman. pp. 95. ISBN 0-86730-784-6.
  5. ^ a b Wyler, Susan; McLaughlin, Michael (1999). Great Books for Cooks. New York: Ballantine Books. pp. 133. ISBN 0-345-42149-3.
  6. ^ a b "The Cookbooks We Loved in 1998". Los Angeles Times. December 30, 1998. Retrieved January 5, 2026.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  7. ^ Greene, Gael (June 25, 2001). "Ask Gael: I hear Naples has a cuisine... I want to taste it". New York Magazine. p. 168.
  8. ^ Mendelson, Anne (December 1998). "Kitchen Travels". Gourmet. p. 97.
  9. ^ Waxman, Nach (2000). Wolf, Burt; Aronson, Emily; Fabricant, Florence (eds.). The New Cooks' Catalogue. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 438. ISBN 0-375-40673-5.
  10. ^ Rice, William (December 9, 1998). "Gifts in good taste". Chicago Tribune. pp. 2.
  11. ^ Thorne, John (2007). Mouth Wide Open: A Cook and His Appetite. New York: North Point Press. pp. 36. ISBN 978-0-86547-628-8.
  12. ^ Capalbo, Carla (2005). The Food and Wine Guide to Naples and the Campania. London: Pallas Athene. ISBN 1-873429-71-1.
  13. ^ De Mane, Erica (2004). The Flavors of Southern Italy. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 366. ISBN 0-471-27251-5.
  14. ^ Steingarten, Jeffrey (September 2003). "Where the bufala roam". Vogue. Vol. 193, no. 9. p. 696.
  15. ^ "HarperCollins Publishers Congratulates Paula Wolfert". The New York Times. May 12, 1999. pp. F5.
  16. ^ "Los Angeles Times Cookbook Hot List". Los Angeles Times. February 10, 1999. Retrieved January 5, 2026.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
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