Most are aware that Italians are warm, spirited and generous with their gestures. Most also recognize the Italians' way in the kitchen. Unlike American life, Italian life revolves around meal times, at a table with family and friends and good conversation. Or, as Cristina Cook writes in her new cookbook, "The table is not just about food ... it's about fellowship."
"Cristina's Tuscan Table" is a gorgeous and sumptuous book that one would think twice about dirtying with a spot of sauce, but it's meant to be used, not just put up in the library.
This is Cook's second foray into the cookbook business. Her first book, "Cristina's of Sun Valley," was a celebration of the restaurant, Cristina's, housed in a charming old home in Ketchum. The publisher of this book, Gibbs Smith of Utah, wanted to know how Cristina Ceccatelli (Cook's maiden name) came from Italy to Idaho and ended up opening up a haven of Tuscan cooking in Ketchum.
"The format is the same," Cook said, as she scurried around her busy restaurant. "The principle behind the book is the same, with the same parameters."
The book opens with Cook's tale of coming to visit a friend in Boise in 1981 and falling for the friend's brother, Steve Cook. After the family relocated to Ketchum, Cook opened her new restaurant.
"My goal was simple: to re-create an Italian sense of fun and camaraderie, celebrating life with a good meal in good company," Cook said.
Her success over the years has been enthralling. The restaurant hums with activity on a daily basis. Bakers create breads and cakes. Customers pick up take out orders and buy cheeses. Catered parties and dinners are planned and prepped, and diners enjoy long tasty meals in the garden and in the chic dining room.
The book, in gathering all these elements together with Kirsten Shultz's gorgeous photographs, is presented in a simple-to-understand manner.
There are classic Italian recipes and recipes that are requested by the restaurant's regular customers. But the book is truly a mélange of foods, tastes and sights of Cook's life from Tuscany to Ketchum.
"It's like a journey," she said. "The emphasis is more of the experience of what I brought when I started here more than 10 years ago."
Book launch
Join Cristina Cook, 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30
Wine and hors d'oeuvres
Cristina's Restaurant
510 Second Street. Ketchum
