Johnathan & Shelagh Routh, Note di cucina di Leonardo da Vinci, Rome: Voland, 2005.
Johnathan & Shelagh Routh, Note di cucina di Leonardo da Vinci, Rome: Voland, 2005.
Originally written in English, Leonardo’s Kitchen Note Books (1987), Jonathan and Shelagh Routh inventively interpret a wide range of da Vinci’s food-related ideas and drawings of contraptions, cooking and table manners. The ‘notes’ supplementing the wonderful sketches slide between faithful commentary or farcical reinterpretations.
At times (so it seems), the couple Routh take complete creative license to decode da Vinci’s complex sketches. For instance, one machine becomes a Device for Eliminating Frogs from Drinking Water. It also appears that Leonardo’s genius invented such condensed foods as the Pastiglie de mucca (cow pastille), forerunner of the modern bouillon cube.
Whether their annotations are totally true or fabulously false, the book is a host of suggested comestibles, marvellous recipes and how to catch and roast one’s prey including, Un elenco di insetti commestibili (A list of edible insects including grasshoppers, crickets and bees), Gabbiano in pastella (Battered seagull), Otaria (Sea lion), Anguilla soda (Eel soda), as well as words of advice on etiquette such as the ‘Correct Positioning of Diseased Guests at Table’!