Image: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain
El Libro de Dona Petrona
- Year
- 1934
- Era
- 20th century
- Origin
- Argentina · Americas
- Language
- Spanish
- Category
- Latin America
El Libro de Doña Petrona, first issued in 1934, is the foundational cookbook of modern Argentine domestic cuisine, compiled by Petrona C. de Gandulfo from recipes developed through her work demonstrating gas cookery. Continuously reprinted across decades, it codified middle-class Argentine cooking, blending European techniques with local ingredients, and became a fixture of household kitchens nationwide, attaining the status of a cultural institution comparable to few other Latin American culinary works.
Cooking from this book
Pionono
Signature dishA thin, pliant sponge sheet rolled around sweet or savoury fillings, the pionono became almost a shorthand for the kind of practical home elegance Doña Petrona championed on Argentine tables. Generations of cooks first met it through her book, which guided middle class households into confident entertaining from the 1930s onward. Served at teas, birthdays and Christmas suppers alike, it remains tied to her name in domestic memory across the country.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
