The Vinegar of Spilamberto And Other Italian Adventures with Food, Places and People
By Doris Muscatine
The Vinegar of Spilamberto
It’s been 20 years since I made my first pilgrimage into the Berkeley Hills to meet Doris Muscatine. I’d read an article she’d written about coffee and felt compelled to meet the woman behind the pen. Curiosity takes us many wonderful places in life; for me the home of Doris and Charles Muscatine turned out to be one of the best.
She was largely responsible for my first trip to Italy and earliest experiences of white truffles, Barollos and and Barbarescos in the Piedmont region. She introduced me to many off-the-beaten path treasures and once when I couldn’t gain entry to a cherished art collection, she found the godfather of the collector’s children to personally escort me there.
The Vinegar of Spilamberto is an utterly personal little volume drawing from her 47-year-long love affair with Italy with humor and charm. If you enjoy it, as much as I did, try to find some of her earlier works:
The University of California/Sotheby Book of California Wine which she co-wrote with Robert Thompson and Maynard Amerine
A Cook’s Tour of San Francisco: the best restaurants and their recipes
Old San Francisco: The Biography of a City from Early Days
to the Earthquake. 
