Replica Italian cook’s knives, based on illustrations in Scappi’s Opera These are modern replicas of the cook’s knives illustrated in Scappi’s influential cookery book (displayed below). The different blades – kept scrupulously clean and lethally sharpened – all had different functions as Scappi’s labels reveal: ‘ostreghine’ for opening oysters; ‘smembratori’ for dismembering meat; ‘coltella da torta’ for cutting cakes, and ‘coltelli da pasta’ for shaping pasta dough. Such advanced equipment required skilled craftsmen to make it, and highly trained staff to use it. The variety of culinary tools discussed by Scappi makes most modern kitchens look decidedly under- equipped.

Danilo Leon Todeschini, 2016

Wood and steel

Private collection