Buon Ricordo

Neapolitan Armando Percuoco’s CV says it all. Born of a family of cooks, he began training at14. After arriving in Australia in 1972, he opened his first restaurant in 1979. Thirty years later Buon Ricordo (appropriately the name translates as ‘fond memory’) is a benchmark Italian restaurant in Sydney.

Now this eponymous book collects some of Percuoco’s best recipes, stunningly photographed, wide-ranging and exciting, yet expressed simply so that the home cook can experience those magical words at a dinner party ‘did you really make that?’.

 “I may be doing myself out of a job,” says Armando in his foreword, “but I want to remove the mystique from restaurant food.”

In this book, I believe he both manages to do that with aplomb, but also ensures that even more people will plan to enjoy his food at Buon Ricordo, the restaurant.

Congratulations to Armando Percuoco and David Dale! Buon Ricordo has been announced as the Australian winner of the 'Best Italian Cuisine Book' category in the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. The winners in each country now compete in their category for 'The Best in the World', to be announced on 11 February 2010 at theatre Le 104, at the Paris Cookbook Fair.

Armando Percuoco & David Dale, Allen & Unwin, hardcover, 2009, rrp. A$65.