Talisman of Happiness : The Most Iconic Italian Cookbook Ever Written

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER

"An indispensable guide for Italian home cooks.” —Kim Severson, New York Times

The most iconic and beloved Italian cookbook ever published—a treasury of over 1,600 definitive regional recipes that inspired the worldwide bestseller The Silver Spoon—translated for the first time in full for the American kitchen.

In 1929, two years before The Joy of Cooking was published in America, and two decades before The Silver Spoon in Italy, Ada Boni wrote The Talisman of Happiness—the original must-have culinary bible for Italians. Generations of cooks have turned to "Il Talismano" as the definitive source for classic dishes that bring comfort, nostalgia, and deep pleasure—including the iconic Marcella Hazan, who used the book to teach herself how to cook. Cataloging all the flavors and traditions that define Italian cuisine, it quickly became a quintessential wedding gift: a talisman of luck for newlyweds beginning a new life. “There can be no true happiness,” Boni wrote, “if such an essential part of our daily lives as eating is neglected.”

Talisman became a national treasure, growing in length every time a new edition was published. In this landmark first English edition of the complete work, featuring nearly 1,700 recipes, American cooks can finally appreciate Talisman in full. Carefully translated to preserve the spirit and warmth of the original, this new edition makes the richness of Italy’s regional cooking accessible to all—and includes American measurements, delightful illustrations, and forewords by Lidia Bastianich and Katie Parla.
 
Boni wrote Talisman for anyone longing for a taste of the traditional, and included notes offering kitchen insights with the occasional bit of stern guidance. Whether you are a seasoned cook or are just beginning your culinary journey, Talisman offers the gift of good luck alongside timeless recipes that embrace the true spirit of Italian cuisine: cooking to feed the body and nourish the soul.
 

Ada Boni (1891-1973) was one of Italy’s first food writers. In 1915, she and her husband (a close friend of chef Augustus Escoffier) founded Preziosa, a food magazine and a few years later, Boni opened a cooking school for aristocratic Roman women. In 1925 she crowdsourced her readers and students and if 500 committed to buying a cookbook, she said she’d create it—and that’s how The Talisman of Happiness was born. It has since sold more than 1,000,000 copies and has never gone out of print in Italy