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
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Overview
In-4. pp. 211, [4].
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.
Condition
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
Why La Fenice likes 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.
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.
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