The emperor’s cook

In Il cuoco dell'imperatore, published by La nave di Teseo, Raffaele Nigro pieces together the story of Guaimaro delle Campane, very skilfully illustrating how a country’s culture, civilisation, Establishment, can be narrated through food and sumptuous feasts. Guaimaro is a courtier of Frederick II, Duke of Swabia, king of Sicily and Germany. He knows how to cook and has some medical knowledge, too: therefore, as both cook and keeper of the health of such an ambitious and powerful figure of his times, he ends up living a rather intense life at court, in the company of the poets and philosophers, artists and scientists with which Frederick loved to surround himself. The 13^th century was rife with great passions, furious political fights between the papacy and the empire, and deep cultural and moral tensions. The Dark Ages were coming to an end and new times were peering over the horizon (already glimpsed in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy). Through the meticulous description of Guaimaro's life and attitudes, Nigro succeeds in narrating the most controversial traits of the emperor – from an interest in the magical arts to his visionary projects of a united Europe with its roots firmly planted in Mediterranean culture – while good food and wine become the helpful means with which to seek the profound significance of stories that still speak to us today. Il cuoco dell’imperatore (The emperor's cook) Raffaele Nigro La nave di Teseo, 2021