What's New

Use a different pin colour for mapped favourites so they are easier to distinguish. Add entry for corbo, minor other content updates and fixes.

App Description

The ITALIAN FOOD DECODER is the perfect companion for exploring the world of Italian cuisine. This app provides instant translations of all the food names, terms and phrases commonly used in cooking. And it's much more than just a dictionary. In-depth entries for all the important words offer background, with descriptions of what's in a dish, where it came from, what goes good with it and who does it best.

The ITALIAN FOOD DECODER is comprehensive—some 6,000 words in all, including dialect words and local dishes from every region of Italy. The advanced search function allows you to instantly find the Italian word for anything, and easy navigation lets you puzzle through any restaurant menu in a snap.

With so many regional styles and specialities, Italian cooking can be awfully mystifying (we've found over twenty words for chanterelle mushrooms), but this app will help you sort out the local peculiarities as well as the hundreds of varieties of cheeses, charcuterie, fish, pasta shapes and the rest.

The ITALIAN FOOD DECODER is an education in everything Italian in a fun, accessible form. Whether you're a first-time visitor or a seasoned Italophile, it is bound to increase your enjoyment and appreciation of one of the world's great cuisines. Buon appetito!

• Over 2000 articles for the most important dishes and specialities
• Special lists of cookware and tableware words, cuts of meat, cheese and wine terms and other topics
• Links to food sites, blogs and recipes, and to Italian food festivals
• Take it to the market and learn what you're looking at
• Use it to decipher real Italian recipes
• Lists DOC foods, and local specialities in the Slow Food 'Presidium' (was Ark of Taste)

* About the Authors *
Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls are the authors of twenty-six Cadogan Guides covering every town and region of Italy; in 2018 they published the detailed Bradt Northern Italy: Emilia-Romagna guide and in 2019, their Bradt guide to Friuli Venezia Giulia was the first in English to the region; currently they are working on the Bradt guide to Umbria and Le Marche. They started back in 1986, bringing up their children in a tiny Umbrian village while exploring the country. Italy soon had its way with them, turning them (and the children) into hopeless, unrepentant foodies. In their travels, they always enjoyed taking notes on regional specialities and obscure delights, and these became the basis of this app.

iPhone Screenshots

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Italian Food Decoder screenshot 1 Italian Food Decoder screenshot 2 Italian Food Decoder screenshot 3 Italian Food Decoder screenshot 4 Italian Food Decoder screenshot 5

iPad Screenshots

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Italian Food Decoder screenshot 6 Italian Food Decoder screenshot 7 Italian Food Decoder screenshot 8 Italian Food Decoder screenshot 9 Italian Food Decoder screenshot 10

App Changes

  • June 06, 2014 Initial release
  • January 23, 2016 New version 3.0.0
  • February 13, 2016 New version 3.1.0
  • February 24, 2016 New version 3.2.0
  • June 20, 2016 New version 3.4
  • November 05, 2016 New version 3.5
  • November 24, 2016 New version 3.6
  • June 14, 2019 New version 3.14
  • September 23, 2019 New version 3.15
  • January 13, 2020 New version 4.0
  • November 11, 2020 New version 4.1
  • September 16, 2023 New version 5.1
  • September 16, 2023 Price increase: $4.99 -> $5.99