Winner of the James Beard/ KitchenAid Cookbook of the Year 2000 and Winner of the Beard Award for the Best Writing on Food 2000.
 
 
September 30, 2023
Bookmark and Share


Welcome to your source for the authentic and traditional foods of Italy and the Mediterranean in their cultural and historical context illustrated with hundreds of heirloom and innovative Italian and Mediterranean recipes fully-tested in the kitchen of James Beard award winning cookbook author Clifford A. Wright.

This is the site for people for whom food is glorious and not fearsome, for people who watch their happiness before they watch their weight, for people who believe that behind every swallow is an insight into who they are. Here is your entry into the world of the most popular cuisines in the world, the world of all the culinary regions of Italy and the Mediterranean. You will find the culinary cultures of Italy and all the countries of the Mediterranean offered with the same depth and balance of recipes and their histories as you would in a flavorful bouillabaisse.

Cuisine does not spring from nowhere and it does not spring from restaurants. Cuisine is a cultural phenomenon that evolves from real people in kitchens cooking to provide food for their families guided by culture, history, agricultural, and need and wants. Here you will find REAL food. I hope you enjoy the recipes and culinary history posted here.

Read Clifford's blog www.cook-coquus.com

Order Clifford's comprehensive gastronomy of Italy, AN ITALIAN FEAST here: https://https://a.co/d/hTDv2Hd






[photo of Clifford A. Wright: Michelle van Vliet]



An Italian Feast: Celebrated Provincial Cuisines of Italy from Como to Palermo, a Culinary Vade Mecum...

More »

 


One-Pot Wonders

More »

 


Hot & Cheesy

More »

 


The Best Soups in the World

More »

 


Bake Until Bubbly: The Ultimate Casserole Book

More »

 


Some Like It Hot: Spicy Favorites from the World’s Hot Zones

More »

 


Little Foods of the Mediterranean: 500 Fabulous Recipes for Antipasti, Tapas, Hors d' Oeuvre, Meze, and More

More »

 


Real Stew: 300 Recipes for Authentic Home-Cooked Cassoulet, Gumbo, Chili, Curry, Minestrone, Bouillabaisse, Strogan

More »

 


Mediterranean Vegetables: A Cook's ABC of Vegetables and Their Preparation in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey,

More »

 


A Mediterranean Feast: The Story of the Birth of the Celebrated Cuisines of the Mediterranean from the Merchants of

More »

 

Pizza Dough
(Bread Doughs, Short Doughs, and Batters)
pizza dough
posted: 03/13/2018

Crêpes
Crespelle
(Bread Doughs, Short Doughs, and Batters)
Classic recipe for French crêpes
posted: 03/04/2018

Braised Duck
Anatra in Umido
(Fowl)
Braised duck
posted: 01/02/2018

Sausage, Rice, and Chickpea Soup
Minestra di Salsicce, Riso, e Ceci
(Soups)
Thick soup of rice, sausage, kale, and chickpeas
posted: 12/01/2016

Snail Fritters
Beignets d'Escargot
(Antipasto, Meze, Tapas, and Hors d'Oeuvres)
Fried snail fritters
posted: 08/02/2016

 


Be notified of updates and events:
 


Cucina Paradiso is a wonderfully insightful and refreshingly personal exploration of one of the world�s most exciting cuisines--full of rich, colorful, and highly seasoned dishes unlike any other Italian food you know.  The book is also full of fascinating history.  Food is the prism through which Clifford Wright views Sicily and Sicilian culture.
- Paula Wolfert, author of Paula Wolfert's World of Food, Mediterranean Cooking, The Cooking of South-West France, an


If there is a cookbook of the year, this [Mediterranean Feast] is it.  A remarkably ambitious work....The subject is vast, the scope of time daunting, but Wright comes across as a cheerful, dedicated scholar who was sorry when he had to stop.  Recipes are written to be accessible to contemporary cooks.
- William Rice, Chicago Tribune

(View all)

In association with: