La cucina golosa di Madame Bovary

Madame Bovary: brunette, slender, pretty, dreamer, deluded, desperate. To this series of adjectives we must add: greedy. Greedy for life, for joy, for food. Emma, Gustave Flaubert tells us, loves confitures, ice creams, frozen syrups, fruits, sweet liqueurs. Flirtatiousness, gallantry, eroticism, seduction are associated, in her dreams as in reality, with candlelight dinners, champagne, the small and large luxuries of the table. Tell me what you eat and I’ll tell you who you are: it is from the point of view of this ancient adage that Elisabetta Chicco Vitzizzai looks at the character of Emma Bovary, tracing in the novel indications on what she loves or hates to eat, or more simply loves or hates tout court. The result is La cucina golosa di Madame Bovary, a collection of tasty recipes that a modern cook has made executable in our times, while maintaining the ancient flavor of Flaubert’s time.