The ANNOTICO Report
Thanks to Nicola Linza
The Fabulous Fior - Over 100 Years in an Italian Kitchen
is a lively tale
of cookery and passion illuminating the lives of immigrant
families who
created the Fior d'Italia, America's oldest Italian restaurant.
The book chronicles the shenanigans of operating a San
Francisco Italian
restaurant during Prohibition, the complexities of serving
an upstairs
brothel and the requirements of pleasing VIPs such as
Richard M. Nixon and
Luciano Pavarotti.
It offers a tapestry of American history, witnessed by
Italian-American
immigrants in San Francisco from the Gold Rush through
the 1906 Earthquake
and Fire and World War II to the 21st century.
The Fabulous Fior also features traditional Italian recipes
and photographs
spanning more than 11 decades. The 30 traditional Italian
recipes, mostly
created by the Fior's chef Gianfranco Audieri, were tested
by Tina Salter.
They range from well-known dishes such as veal scaloppini
to traditional
Italian favorites less familiar to Americans such as
cabbage and bread
soup. In addition the book offers traditional Italian
recipes handed down
by the relatives of the founding families.
The book opens with a foreword by mystery writer John
Lescroart who has
featured the San Francisco Italian restaurant in his
novels Guilt and A
Certain Justice.
The Fabulous Fior is a "fabulous read" says former San
Francisco City
Librarian and historian Gladys Hansen. "Francine Brevetti
has woven a tale
I couldn't put down. San Francisco's history has been
immeasurably enriched
by its Italian-Americans. They not only knew how to cook
and how to eat,
they knew how to work and work hard. She's got it all
there. It's a keeper."
Francine Brevetti, a native of San Francisco, remembers
listening to her
mother's stories about the grandfather Brevetti never
knew, Alberto
Puccetti, who had been a waiter at the Fior d'Italia
a century ago.
Brevetti is a long-time journalist who spent her early
writing career in
New York at The Journal of Commerce. She freelanced in
Hong Kong and
Southeast Asia from 1985-1997 for US, UK and HK publications.
She returned
to San Francisco at the end of 1997 and has been working
for The Oakland
Tribune since 1998.
ISBN 0-973351-0-3
San Francisco Bay Books
13966 Beitler Road, Nevada City, CA 95959
Hardcover, 170 pages $27.50