Erotic satire meets truffled tabarin, straight from 1920s Sicily.
Rompini, Omero
La Cucina Dell'Amore
Manuale Culinario Afrodisiaco Per Gli Adulti Dei Due Sessi. Rigenerazione Fisica, Virilità E Giovinezza Recuperate Per L'Impiego Appropriato Dei Cibi, Condimenti, Aromi, Salse Ecc. Formule Storiche, Afrodisiaci Igienici Prodigiosi, Bibite E Profumi Eccitanti, Suggestivi E Rinvigoritori Sessuali.
1926, Catania, Libreria Tirelli Di F. Guaitolini
Overview
It’s hard not to grin at the irony: in 1926, deep in Catholic, conservative Sicily, Omero Rompini published La Cucina dell'Amore, a sultry culinary manual that reads like a wink across the dinner table.
Billed as an “aphrodisiac cookbook for adults of both sexes,” this untrimmed and possibly food-stained brossura is equal parts erotic mischief and kitchen satire.
Inside the book
Though the dishes are mostly feasible, their real purpose is literary and aesthetic: recipes are described in elaborate catalogues, with luxurious ingredients - lapwing eggs, oysters, foie gras, truffles, and the finest wines elevated into symbols of refinement and seduction.
Why La Fenice chose it
Because it’s a flamboyant ode to seduction and satire, spicing up 1920s Sicily with Parisian flair. A culinary masquerade where the kitchen flirts and the recipes wink.
Condition Report
pp. 211, [4].
Original printed wrappers, with significant stain (possibly (olive oil or other cooking material), passing onto the first 4 papers; spine showing the signs of age; otherwise in great condition. Untrimmed.
Dimensions (inches): 9.5 x 6 x 0.5
About the author
Though presented as an Italian work signed by “Doctor Omero Rompini,” the text is in fact a translation and adaptation of a French original, its authorship hidden behind pseudonyms.