The Story of a Book that is a Bit Like the Story of Cinderella

I had just put the finishing touches on my book, Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well, when my learned friend Francesco Trevisan, professor of Literature at the Scipione Maffei Secondary School in Verona, happened to come to Florence. A passionate scholar of Ugo Foscolo, he had been chosen to serve as a member of the committee to oversee the construction of a monument to the Bard of the Sepulchers in the church of Santa Croce.¹ Having had the pleasure, on that occasion, of hosting him at my home, it seemed to me an opportune moment to ask him his refined opinion of my culinary work. Alas! After examining the work, and with it my humble efforts of many years, he passed the terrible sentence: This book will have little success.