“The one-volume encyclopedia of Italian home cookery.” – Wall Street Journal

For over twenty years, The Silver Spoon has stood as one of the most influential and beloved Italian cookbooks, both for home cooks and professional chefs. To celebrate its 20th anniversary English-language edition, Create! Magazine spoke with Emilia Terragni, Phaidon’s copublisher and the driving force behind its international success.

Often referred to as “Phaidon’s Queen of Cookbooks” by the Wall Street Journal, Terragni has built a publishing empire of high-end, visually striking cookbooks featuring chefs such as Ferran Adrià, René Redzepi, Alex Atala, and Magnus Nilsson. Her career at Phaidon began with a bold move: securing the rights to publish The Silver Spoon in English, a decision that shifted the company’s focus beyond art and design into the culinary world. Since then, Phaidon has become a powerhouse in food publishing, producing definitive works that balance storytelling, design, and gastronomy.

What first drew you to The Silver Spoon and inspired you to bring it to an international audience?

The Italian edition of the book has always been in my family; my grandmother had a copy, and she gave one to my mother when she got married. It was the book I used to learn to cook, and it was the book that made me appreciate Italian cuisine. When I got into publishing and I saw that it had never been translated into English, I decided to secure the rights and publish it, as it is one of the best and most complete books on Italian cuisine ever written.

Why do you think this book has resonated with home cooks and chefs for two decades?

The Silver Spoon contains more than 2,000 recipes from all over the country, the recipes are easy to prepare, they are clearly explained, and there is something for everyone. You can find the classic traditional recipes you know but really want to master, together with more regional, delicious dishes to explore.

Can you share one of your favorite stories or memories from working on the series?

The Silver Spoon was our first cookbook, and we learnt a lot from publishing it. I was fascinated by the fact that, once we had translated the recipes, we still had to do an enormous amount of work on them. Italian recipes are much less detailed and have fewer instructions – they take it for granted that readers will already have a lot of what they consider to be basic knowledge. The lists of the ingredients in the Italian original were organised in order of importance, while in English ingredients are shown in the order of their use. Apparently, this is because Italians want to see the main ingredients in a recipe first, as they may decide to substitute those they consider to be less important, while in US and UK home cooks follow recipes more literally.

The book emphasizes seasonality and regionality. How do those values shape Italian cooking today?

Seasonality is extremely important in Italian cuisine. When I first moved abroad, I was surprised to see tomatoes in winter – the ones I tried were actually not very good and, in Italy, they were not available out of season. Seasonality brings the flavor out of ingredients and also brings a great variety to our diet. Italy is a long country that goes from the Alps of the north to the shores of the South. The produce is very different from region to region, and because traditionally everyone uses what is available nearby, the dishes from region to region, and even from city to city, are very different.

What do you think is the most surprising or underrated recipe in the collection?

Italian cuisine is based on a few simple, but very good, ingredients per dish. There is very little waste in Italian cooking, from preparing a soup with stale bread and whatever vegetables you have to hand (Ribollita), to using all the parts of an animal in a meal (as shown in the recipes in the Offal/Variety meat chapter), or using fish bones to add flavor to a fish stew, this is a cuisine that is affordable and sustainable.

What do you hope new readers and home cooks will take away from this 20th anniversary edition?

I hope everyone will see how Italian cuisine is made up of way more than pizza and pasta (although both, by the way, are amazing and delicious), and that the great variety of recipes and simple techniques in the book will guide everyone to follow the seasons and get the most out of their ingredients with very little waste.

About The Silver Spoon

Originally published in 1950 by Domus, the design and architectural magazine directed by Giò Ponti, The Silver Spoonhas become one of the most essential cookbooks in Italian households. Conceived as a comprehensive collection of traditional Italian recipes, the book updates ingredients and methods while preserving centuries-old traditions. With more than 2,000 recipes and newly commissioned photography, this revised edition offers guidance for both the amateur cook and the professional chef.

A true classic, The Silver Spoon remains a definitive reference for Italian cuisine—destined to hold its place on bookshelves alongside The Joy of Cooking and Larousse Gastronomique.