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Guy Mirabella is much better known in his native Australia than he is here is the United States. But a cookbook newly released by Chronicle Books may change all that. 

That is because Mirabella is a creative man with a love of food and life. He is the son of Italian immigrants who passed their tradition of freshly prepared food, with a strong Sicilian influence along to their children. Many of his childhood memories revolve around his family influenced philosophy of eating seasonally and simply, yet with an honest extravagance that honors the greatest of food traditions.

His eatery Shop Ate Cafe, on the Mornington Peninsula of Australia, further reflects these ideals. But he is also a painter and a graphic designer with 25 years experience in publishing.

All these talents are showcased in his recent cookbook Eat Ate. It is the first cookbook I will be featuring here at Sippity Sup as part of an ongoing monthly series with Chronicle Books, called Sup! Loves Cookbooks!

Mirabella seems a man of great passion and zeal. His love of cooking and his talent for painting are reflected in this cookbook's stirring design, which is both sumptuous and straightforward. The surprising addition of postcard-sized remembrances (tucked inside the pages), along with the luscious texture of the paper, and most especially the sensual imagery (in the Earl Carter credited photography) gives the whole book has a decidedly tactile quality.

That’s because this book is designed to be experienced in your hands and with your eyes. It is part memoir, part family photo album, as well as beloved recipe file. It artistically weaves the past and the present together through imagery, recipes and recollections.  Like beloved souvenirs, the recipes, together with Mirabella's artistic images and his personal reminiscences form multi-layered collages. Sure he is celebrating a love of food, but the love seems based in a life well lived.

"This book celebrates my Italian spirit and always pays homage to the importance of family," writes Mirabella. "Unlike traditional cookbooks, there are no starter, main meal and dessert chapters in this book. Rather, the recipes are organised according to the themes that give me the comfort and freedom to express the way I cook, eat, design and paint. Extravagance, generosity, love, tradition, life– food is all about truth, beauty and perseverance."

As the chapter titles suggest, this book does have all the bells and whistles. Maybe a few of the design details will seem superfluous. Design for design sake. But it's easy to forgive the author this indulgence because this book's obvious beauty is not a bonus featureto this man.

Still, at its heart, it is indeed a cookbook. The way to judge a cookbook is not by its cover, but to actually cook something from it.

I was immediately drawn to the chapter entitled Love. That's because every recipe in this section is pasta! He equates pasta with love, and that says so much about this book and this man. I am not being presumptuous, after reading this book I do feel qualified to say that.

GREG