The Fabbri Editori collezione cucina is easiest to choose by organising principle: Scuola di cucina for step-by-step learners, Le cotture for technique, and Cucina dal mondo or the Cucina etnica volumes for foreign cuisines. Check title, year and series label before buying.
These cookery titles sit inside the wider collezioni Fabbri Editori edicola story, but this guide covers only recipes and cuisine, comparing how each title arranges its material.
How the titles are selected and ordered
No ranking applies here, because nothing in the catalogue listings measures quality, sales or completeness. The titles are grouped instead by the way each one organises its recipes, since that decides who will actually use it.
- Organising principle: by course, by cooking method, by ingredient or by national cuisine. This is the main selection criterion.
- Series label: retail catalogues file Fabbri cookery under a Cucina series and a separate Cucina grande series, which helps when matching a copy to a listing.
- Year: publication years in the listings run from 1999 to 2006 for the titles discussed below.
- Condition and price: used copies are listed next to new ones, so buyers can compare before committing to a title.
Course and step-by-step volumes
These titles suit cooks who want a structured route through a meal or through basic skills. They are the closest the listings come to a general cooking encyclopedia, although the cataloguing shows individual titles rather than a numbered set.
Scuola di cucina
The Feltrinelli series page lists Scuola di cucina. Step by step oltre 500 ricette, dated 2005. The title itself claims more than 500 recipes, shown in step-by-step form. It suits beginners and anyone who learns from sequences of pictures. Its limit is breadth of cuisine: a step-by-step teaching book does not replace a specialist volume on one technique or country.
Antipasti & primi piatti
The same listing shows Antipasti & primi piatti, published by Fabbri in 2005. It narrows the focus to the opening courses of a meal, which suits cooks planning a menu course by course. Because it covers only part of the meal, it works as a companion to a general volume rather than a stand-alone kitchen reference.
Technique and single-subject volumes
Where a title is organised by technique or ingredient, it answers a different question from a course-based book: not “what do I serve?” but “how do I cook this way?”
Le cotture
On the Feltrinelli listing, Le cotture is subtitled Al vapore, al forno, fritto, con il wok, alla griglia and is dated 2006. That makes it the clearest technique-first title: steaming, oven, frying, wok and grill each define a section. It suits cooks who own good ingredients but want to vary the method.
Cucina con il wok
Cucina con il wok by Bruno Ballureau appears with a 2003 Fabbri date. A used listing is priced at 16,00 € on that page, though prices of used copies change. It is a single-technique book, so it overlaps with the wok section of Le cotture. Buy one or the other unless the full wok treatment matters.
Gelati, sorbetti e semifreddi and Tutto cioccolato
Gelati, sorbetti e semifreddi by Véronique de Meyer is listed as a Fabbri title from 2004 on Feltrinelli. Tutto cioccolato, by Nicoletta Negri and Nathalie Aru, is dated 2002 on IBS, under the Cucina grande label. Both are dessert specialists, suited to cooks who bake or churn regularly. They are poor choices as a first purchase for everyday dinners.
Cuisines of other countries
Fabbri cookery also arranges material by national cuisine. This is the third principle after course and technique, and it suits cooks who want one cuisine explored in depth.
Cucina dal mondo
IBS lists Cucina dal mondo from Fabbri, 2004, in the Cucina grande series. As a survey title it gives a wide taste of several cuisines. It suits readers deciding which national cooking to pursue before buying a specialist volume.
Cucina etnica: Tex-mex and Giappone
Two Cucina etnica volumes are dated 1999: Tex-mex by Giovanni Guagliardi on Feltrinelli, and Giappone by Minoru Hirazawa and Graziana Canova Tura on IBS. Each is a one-country title.
Italian cuisine and a similar-sounding magazine
Italian cooking in this group appears mainly through the course-organised volumes above rather than through a separate regional set. Do not confuse these books with the magazine La Cucina Italiana, whose digital listing states that over 1,000 new recipes are tested per year. It is a separate publication, not a Fabbri title.
Comparison of the cooking titles
| Title | Year | Organised by | Planning use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scuola di cucina | 2005 | Step by step, over 500 recipes | Best general starting point for learners |
| Antipasti & primi piatti | 2005 | Meal courses | Menu planning for opening courses |
| Le cotture | 2006 | Cooking method: steam, oven, fried, wok, grill | Choose when method matters more than cuisine |
| Cucina con il wok | 2003 | Single technique | Only if wok cooking is the focus |
| Gelati, sorbetti e semifreddi | 2004 | Dessert type | Frozen-dessert specialists |
| Tutto cioccolato | 2002 | Single ingredient | Chocolate bakers |
| Cucina dal mondo | 2004 | Several world cuisines | Survey before a country-specific book |
| Cucina etnica: Tex-mex | 1999 | One cuisine | Deep dive into Tex-Mex |
| Cucina etnica: Giappone | 1999 | One country | Deep dive into Japanese cooking |
Titles and years come from the Feltrinelli Cucina series page and the IBS Cucina grande page.
Format: loose sheets or bound volumes
Catalogue listings favour the bound book. In the IBS listing the format filter shows Rilegato with a single entry, so hardcover is the minority format there, and the IBS page labels the wider group a separate Cucina grande series from Fabbri.
Binder-style recipe issues, the dispense format, are not distinguished in these listings. A reader holding loose issues must therefore judge by the physical object: sheets kept in a binder point to the dispense format, while a sewn or glued spine points to a bound volume. Newsstand collectors who prefer sets built issue by issue should read the hub guide for how that programme worked, and treat these catalogue titles as single books.
Buying used and identifying your edition
Used copies appear beside new ones on the Feltrinelli series page, which shows 38 results in total. One used listing for a 2005 title is priced at 14,00 €. Treat these as snapshots of asking prices, not a fixed market value.
Are the sets complete?
The listings sell titles individually, so completeness is a matter of checking each volume you buy. The total of 38 results is a useful checklist ceiling for that catalogue page, not proof that any one set has that many volumes. Before paying for a bundle, confirm every title in it by name and year.
Which edition do I own?
Match four details to the listings: the exact title, the year, the authors and the series label (Cucina or Cucina grande). Where several volumes share a spine design, compare spines side by side.
Beyond cookery
Readers who collect across subjects can compare this group with the Fabbri Editori collezione lavori manuali, which covers hands-on making, and the Fabbri Editori collezione musica, which covers the music sets.
Frequently asked questions
Which cooking collections were sold at newsstands?
Catalogue listings identify the Fabbri cookery titles by series, Cucina and Cucina grande, rather than by sales channel. The series label and the volume itself are therefore the practical identifiers.
How were the recipes organised across volumes?
By several principles: meal course in Antipasti & primi piatti, cooking method in Le cotture, ingredient in Tutto cioccolato, and national cuisine in Cucina dal mondo and the Cucina etnica volumes.
Are the sets complete in the used market?
Used copies are listed title by title next to new ones, so a complete run has to be checked volume by volume. Confirm each title and year before buying a bundle.
How do I tell which edition I own?
Compare title, year, authors and series label with the catalogue entry. Years such as 2003 for Cucina con il wok and 2005 for Scuola di cucina often settle the question.
