Regarded at the bible for all Italian home cooks, until recently it has only ever been printed in Italian. However this year, for the first time, all those who love classical Italian cookery can read and enjoy it in English.

You know a book is going to deliver when you see at the very beginning a page with huge block letters telling the reader: Eating is a serious matter.

And it is a serious book: hardcover, 2000 recipes clearly set out over 1200 pages, with colour photographs and sketches. Even the index covers 60 pages!

New cooks are introduced to the essential ingredients, vocabulary and utensils needed to cook and understand Italian dishes, before being launched into the whys and wherefores of how to make perfect pizze and pies, quiches, sausages and souffles.

There’s everything a cook of any level can enjoy and master, from bruschetta that a child could handle, to béchamel and breads; from homestyle minestrones to menus from master chefs.

This is a book to keep as an heirloom, to pass down through the generations, but most importantly to use as a reference for any and all Italian dishes.

The Silver Spoon, published by Phaidon press, distributed by Bookwise International, rrp $69.95. Available from good bookstores.