Carolyn Hart reviews Delizia! The Epic History of the Italians and Their Food by John Dickie and A Late Dinner: Discovering the Food of Spain by Paul Richardson
In 1931, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, founder of the Futurist Movement, launched the Manifesto of Futurist Cooking at the Taverna del Santoplata in Turin, a restaurant constructed from floor to ceiling in aluminium, with a menu that featured Intuitive antipasto, Aerovictuals, Equator and North Pole, Ultravirile and aroused pig.
Guests were invited to eat one-handedly, using the other to stroke blocks of sandpaper, red silk and black velvet while listening to Wagner and being sprayed with perfume by the head waiter.
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