Rome: A Culinary History, Cookbook, and Field Guide to the Flavors that Built a City
Katie Parla. Parla Publishing, 2025. ISBN 979-8-9869976-5-0.
Confession: I am a major fanboy. Nonetheless, here is an unbiased and honest review of the new book: Go. Buy. It. Now.
Katie Parla has been in Rome, doing food tours and getting master degrees and eating all the food. And she shares her learning with us. She has done a Rome book before, which is great. But this one is a deeper dive and gives us history, food lore, and a ton of great recipes.
I have had this book for four days, and I made dinner out of it twice already. The recipes collect old-school and new recipes that reflect how Romans have eaten, and how they are eating today. I have been traveling to Rome almost annually since 1995, and I was captured by wonderful memories almost every page of this book. It’s a grand love letter to a truly stupendous city.
The recipes are clearly written, easy to follow, and the results are so good. This is like her previous books, which also highlight the foodways of the regions they cover (Italian South and the Italian Islands) in that it is well-organized, the recipes are great and easy to follow, and the stories and pictures are all sweet.