Maureen B. Fant

This is my first cookbook. It's about half essays on the Roman food scene, past and present, with closeups of specific foods, neighborhoods, markets, and more. The 50 recipes are genuine, with only a little California tweaking. There are chapters on antipasti, primi, secondi, contorni, and dolci, and many of the recipes are ones I make all the time at home; others are adapted from recipes provided by my favorite restaurants.

The photographs are out of this world. I can say that because I had nothing to do with them. They're by Jean-Blaise Hall, who came three or four times from Paris to shoot in different seasons.