Local Recipes in the National Kitchen: The Life and Legacies of Ada Boni’s Il talismano della felicità

Abstract

Ada Boni’s 1925 Il talismano della felicità has for almost 100 years been the Italian domestic manual par excellence. Whether actively used or simply preserved as a family keepsake, Boni’s cookbook has been a fixture in generations of Italian kitchens. This article argues that Il talismano is a major work of Italian national literature. Boni rejects the model established by Pellegrino Artusi’s La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiar bene, offering instead a female-focused domestic manual by a woman and for women. Over its long publication history, Il talismano transforms from an instructional guide for bourgeois housewives into an artifact of Fascist nationalism, and then into a comprehensive compendium of all the foods eaten in Italy. Ongoing revisions and adaptations – including an important 1950 American edition – reflect Il talismano’s desire to provide a model of Italian identity rooted in the hyperlocal variety of Italian culinary traditions and practices.