Mezzogiorno: Francesco Mazzei Recipes from Southern Italy - Hardcover

"Magnificent" (Nigel Barden, BBC Radio 2)

"Southern Italian ingredients are some of my favourites and Francesco Mazzei brings them to life in this book" (Massimo Bottura)

"One of the most important cookbooks of southern Italian cuisine by one of today's most important chefs. Francesco Mazzei's recipes are in equal measure respectfully traditional and brilliantly contemporary. An absolute must for any food lover." (Stanley Tucci)

"A sumptuous, elegant and utterly splendid tome... a book to cook from for the rest of one’s life. Magnifico" (Tom Parker Bowles Mail on Sunday)

"This glorious book is an ode to authentic Italian cuisine" (Square Meal magazine)

Francesco Mazzei hails from Calabria – the toe on Italy’s boot and the region noted for producing n’duja (a spicy, spreadable pork sausage). Like n’duja, Mazzei has come to prominence in the last few years impressing fellow chefs, bloggers and critics alike. From making ice cream at his uncle’s gelateria at the age of nine to working at London’s prestigious Dorchester Hotel and on the pastry sections at Hakkasan and Yautcha, Mazzei has led a varied career that has straddled Rome, Edinburgh, London, Bangkok (where he opened an Italian restaurant at the Royal Sporting Club) and Calabria.

He opened L’Anima in 2008, which became one of the leading lights of London’s collection of Italian restaurants - ‘Many lay claim to being number one Italian restaurant, but Francesco Mazzei’s L’Amina has the edge’ (The Observer, 2013). Signature dishes at L’Anima – such as Charcoal scallops with n’duja and salsa verde and Spit roast leg of lamb with cannellini beans and black cabbage - offer prime examples of a style that marries rustic Calabrian flavours with Modern European precision. His next project opens in Autumn 2015 with the relaunch of Sartoria in Mayfair.

This, his first book, is a straightforward ‘80 terrific southern Italian recipes’ with an introduction to the food of Southern Italy.