English summary: This volume examines the place of cooking, cuisine, and food in fairy tales and fables, Perrault to the Grimm Brothers, including recipes like the omelet that cured a sick queen or the royal cakes served to princely newlyweds, taking readers young and old on a playful and culinary adventure.

English summary: At a time when science has robbed the world of almost all forms of wonder, fables and children's tales offer a forgotten window onto the fabulous forces of nymphs, genies, and other spirits of nature.

Everyone knows Pinocchio, but few know his story. Not the one about how he was transformed from a block of wood into a little boy after an adventure or two, but of his creation by the Florentine journalist Carlo Lorenzini.