Cookbook focused on farm-fresh California ingredients based on traditional Italian family recipes.

Mary Comerio is the Italian matriarch every aspiring cook wants as her own. She has risotto in her DNA: her parents came to the U.S. from small villages in Lombardy, where her father and grandfather were professional bakers and chefs, and her mother was a farm-girl. Mary learned from both sides of her family to cook with a passion for fresh, seasonal ingredients and the practicality required to feed a hungry family -- and the friends who are always welcome at the table. When Mary came to California as a faculty member at University of California, Berkeley, she lived in San Francisco's North Beach Italian community and has made the city her home for more than 40 years. When friends and visitors ask her, "What is the best Italian restaurant in San Francisco", she replies, "my house!" With this cookbook, you can experience dinner at Mary's Place for yourself.