Rick Steves and Fred Plotkin combine their wealth of knowledge about Italy in their new…

Through his TV shows and books Rick Steves, to my mind, is by far the most useful of guides to Europe, as affable as Ted Lasso and more knowledgeable than scripted TV guides like Stanley Tucci and Anthony Bourdain.

Fred Plotkin has proven himself the most authoritative food guide to Italy (as well as a highly regarded opera scholar), so the two getting together for a just-published book, Rick Steves Italy for Food Lovers ($22), which combines his travel expertise with Plotkin’s exhaustive familiarity with Italian food culture. The book explains everything, from why Italian food is different from any other in Europe; how to pick a restaurant in any region of Italy; manners and customs; tipping and not tipping; and recommendations for their favorite restaurants.

I interviewed Fred Plotkin about how the two collaborated.

How did you and Rick Steves collaborate on this book?

Rick had the idea and approached me in the Spring of 2021. He had done 49 books, with his bestseller being his guidebook to Italy, and decided, for his 50th, that he would return to an Italian theme. He had never done a food book before, and Italian food seemed a natural. I’d appeared on many of his radio shows going back at least a decade. Audiences always seemed to respond to my appearances, and he and I had an easy rapport. Interestingly, we had never met in person and had never traveled together. A few years ago he was in NYC on a quick trip, we had a 30-minute coffee on West 58th Street and did a selfie that I think is in the book. With no one traveling in 2021, with Rick in Seattle and me in NYC, we did this book by writing our own parts and exchanging documents electronically, then reading each other’s work, sorting out details, finding a voice and agreeing when to disagree and saying that “one of this book’s authors believes. . .” You will see that the voice of the book is mostly “I” and it is us unless we want to emphasize the experience and outlook of just one of us.

But it was not intended to be a strict restaurant guide?

We both agreed from the start that this is not a restaurant guide, because they date quickly. We wanted to create a book that would give the traveler tools to not only to find a good place to eat in Rome, Florence or Venice but to be able to go anywhere in Italy (as is my wont) and find what is local, traditional and genuine. That is why we cover all 20 regions and have a very long glossary that contains foods that the traveler would encounter whether he is in Novara, Macerata or Alghero, or hundreds of other towns. Rick and I do each list 50 restaurants we like. His are more on the beaten path, mine less so. These are not Italy’s 100 “best “restaurants (I don’t believe in such a thing) but 100 restaurants of different levels that we would be glad to dine at. So, no, it was not about length that had us limit restaurants. It is more that the book’s intention was to have the traveler explore and discover things with my expertise on Italian food culture being their guide.

Your own Italy for the Gourmet Traveler has been the best guide to food and restaurants in Italy. Are you going to do another edition?

It’s gone through six editions that I assiduously updated between 1998 and 2014, and I’d planned to do a seventh, but my British publisher retired. When Rick approached me, it was during the pandemic and I was not traveling anywhere, so I decided to take the core knowledge of my previous books but not all the listings of restaurants, shops, bars, gelaterie, bakeries, cooking schools and more. Obviously, I researched as if for the first time what I intended to put in print. If the text from Gourmet Traveler worked, I used it. Otherwise, I created something new that spoke to what I know and believe now.

How did you split up the work?

Everything in the Italian language was my responsibility and, in reading the book since, I have only found two typos in Italian—one a name missing a letter and the other a slight misspelling. These will be fixed when we reprint.

What is the problem with Michelin Guides’ Italian guidebook?

Italians want you at the table savoring the food, which represents the culture and tradition rather than mere innovation, although they always have innovated, as with the tomato that comes from America. Italy historically has extraordinary ingredients, whereas the French did not have such excellent crops and had to cover them up with sauces.

Why is Italian food so great?

Italian food is greet because it’s served with love. Around the table you don’t age. A conviviality and family tradition, family recipes and you go to their homes and pull our old books from 1897 how to make a sauce, and they make these recipes that represent their own traditions.

How do you pick a restaurant?

I am led by my nose, I smell something rather magnificent and I ask “Senora, what are you making?” and that leads to a conversation. My books reflect home cooking because I went to school in Italy and had friends’ family dinners. I didn’t learn from cooking school but basically the way the Italian homes teach. If you see very long menus in many languages, avoid that. You want a restaurant? Ask what’s good that day—5 or 6 items.

The bill. Do we have to tip?

There’s the coperto, a very old term, when you go to a trattoria and you are paying the cover charge for bread and tablecloth—pane e coperto—2 or 3 euros. Beyond that you do not have to tip at all. However, round up, not by much, maybe if your bill is 47 euros pay 50 as an acknowledgement of you’re being pleased.

Do they take credit cards all over Italy?

More so than before, but some do not take Amex but take the other cards like Mastercard and Visa. Always good to check ahead.

Traveling with children is a chore, except in Italy.

They and old folks are guests of honor and treated with great love and respect, for some reason Italian children don’t shout. The volume in restaurants is much softer than in American restaurants. I don’t want my ears assaulted.

What should we know about pizza?

In Italy it’s not laden with a ton of ingredients or thick crust, like Chicago-style, which could give you a coronary. Portions here are enough for three persons. In Italy you get a smaller, more digestible portion. Pizza has mozzarella, olive oil, tomato and basil. In Naples they might have friarelle bitter greens that come out only in the winter. A little bit of fish. Elsewhere they add local prosciutto speck the Alps or Sicily, The Neapolitan is the gold standard.