Unsung Culinary Heroes Part 1

Angelo Pellegrini (1904-1991)


If you ask any food lover to name some of their heroes and idols, you will more than likely hear names of icons and celebrities like Julia Child, James Beard, Alice Waters, or Thomas Keller. All deserving of such idol worship indeed! A name you may not have heard often–if at all– is that of a man who predates most of them. He is Angelo Pellegrini. A poor peasant boy who emigrated from a small Tuscan village and found himself on the bountiful west coast in Washington State. Pellegrini was espousing the virtues of "farm to table" before Alice Waters was born! He wrote countless essays on food and it's place in our lives. He wrote of vegetable gardens and homemade wine. Most importantly, he wrote of ideals which conveyed the notion, a family living under the most modest of circumstances could eat– as good as–if not better than kings and queens. 

Just about every spring I pull out my copy of The Unprejudiced Palate, originally published in 1948. This is the third copy I've owned. Two previous editions were loaned out never to be seen again! One of them traveled to Europe long before I had myself. Over the years I must have given a dozen or so away as gifts to friends. This most recent edition contains an introduction by Italian culinary giant and kindred spirit Mario Batali. If you can though get your hands on an earlier edition, you can read a wonderful introduction by the great M.F.K. Fisher, who recounts first meeting Angelo Pellegrini at a wine tasting, where she had referred to him as the first man for whom she had shared a spit bucket. 


Another good read is Vintage Pellegrini – The Collected Wisdom of an American Buongustaio. It's a collection of articles and essays written over the course of several decades.


These books are perfect for your spring reading list while you begin to prepare for your own gardens and the brand new farmer's market season.