Professional Reference Books and Cookbooks

Professionalism in the kitchen

Section 5 of the library is designated to reserved for textbooks on restaurant management: from the knowledge and selection of ingredients to storage, prep and cooking.

Here you will find product catalogs of all types.

There are also manuals from Italian cooking schools, including the Manuale di cucina, published in Naples by Marotta in 1978 with an enlightening introduction written by Luigi Carnacia.

There are also foreign language manuals like the Cours professionels de cuisine italienne, published by the Italian Business Delegation in France in 2002, L’art culinaire français, or Du neuf sur le plat: le livre sur la cuisine d’assemblage.

Here you will find the monumental work of Ferràn Adria and his six volume series of El Bulli Cookbooks. Also look for Cooking Essentials for the new professional chef published by The Food and Beverage Institute of New York in1997.

Storage, Service and More

Many library shelves are dedicated to books about how to conserve food; from sun-drying, to salting, to freezing, to vacuum packing.

There are also books about different types of cooking techniques including grilling, pressure-cooking, microwave cooking (over 20 books) and wok cooking according to the Chinese tradition.

Service and table settings are other subjects covered in this section.

There are books about how to organize banquets, set and decorate tables, plate individual dishes, and even how to make edible sculptures out of vegetables, butter or ice.

Restaurant management is also included in this part of the library.

There is a large group of books about nutrition, the base elements, and how to created a well-balanced meal.
Here, you will also find information about innovative and modern approaches to food, including Food: Design and Culture, (Laurence King, Glasgow: 1999) ; Food design: von der funktion zum genuss, (Springer, New York: 2005; Food design, (TeNeues , New York:  2005); Multipli di cibo: cento progetti Foodesign Guzzini. Un nuovo rapporto tra esperti del cibo e designer, (Triennale di Milano: 2004).

Food Technology

This subsection contains information about industrial food production and technology.

This series of books begins with the more classical titles, like Le conserve alimentari vegetali (frutta, ortaggi, funghi e tartufi, (Casale Monferrato: 1906); and the illustrated copy of Les merveilles de l’industrie au description des principales industries modernes: industries agricoles et alimentaires, pain et farines, fecules et petes alimentaires, lait, beurre et fromages, vin, cidre, biere, alcool et distillation vinaigre, huiles, conserves alimentaires, cafe et the by Louis Guillaume Figuier, (Paris: after 1875); or l’Enciclopedia delle piccole e medie industrie (Milan: 1941-1943).

There are also a few books about becoming a professional chef and running a kitchen, information that might interest food lovers.