Thousands of cookbooks are published in Italy each year. The numbers are staggering and one can’t help but wonder, “Too many?”
This question may seem odd coming from a publisher, particularly one that has made its name as a specialist in gastronomical books. The truth is that a supply exceeding demand is not good news for our sector. The situation wasn’t exactly rosy twenty-four years ago when Bibliotheca Culinaria was launched, a time when cookbooks were considered little more than instruction manuals. Confined to the “various and sundry” shelf, mixed with books on tourism, local history and folklore, they were the “homeless” denizens of the bookstore with no dedicated section, no fixed address. It took time to change this situation and a great deal of effort to gain respect for the cookbook as edifying reading or useful professional tool, but the inverted trend is now out of control.

(altro…)