Join us for a special evening celebrating one of Italy’s most influential culinary texts, The Talisman of Happiness by Ada Boni. Bestselling cookbook author, podcast host, and Smitten Kitchen founder Deb Perelman and publisher Michael Szczerban—who spent a decade bringing this landmark work to English—will explore Boni’s legacy and relevance to cooks today.

First published a century ago, The Talisman of Happiness is the cornerstone of Italian home cooking, the mother of all Italian cookbooks to come. Famously, the book taught Marcella Hazan how to cook, shaping generations of Italian cooks in America. Yet Boni’s emphasis on seasonality, thrift, and respect for ingredients is strikingly modern. Amid weeknight time crunches, tight budgets, and endless recipes online, The Talisman of Happiness is a reminder that cooking should be less about perfection and more about pleasure.

Perelman and Szczerban will discuss the journey of bringing this classic to the US, the world Boni captured, and how her lessons resonate today. This event offers a rich look at a pioneering woman in food, and how culinary history is preserved, translated, and brought to life for new audiences.