I was fully prepared to hate this cookbook. And while “loathe” is a word I am loath to use, I was even expecting to loathe it. After all, it was written by an influencer.
And not just an influencer, but an influencer who thinks of himself as an influencer. The sort of influencer who, if you met him at a party and asked what he does for a living, he’d say, “I’m an influencer.” And then he wouldn’t ask you what you do.
Gianluca Conte is the influencer in question. He’s 24, and his cookbook is called “Italian/American: It’s a QCP Cookbook, Betch!” Let’s parse that title. He says in the book’s introduction that although his name is Gianluca, he is better known as QCP.
But he doesn’t say what QCP stands for, leading, naturally, to our own speculation. Quality Control Programmer? Queen Charlotte’s Prisoner? Questionably Colored Pterodactyl? And then there’s that last word, “Betch.” He is famous, he says with his customary lack of modesty, for using the word “betch” a lot.
And indeed, it appears at the bottom of every recipe where he writes, “Buon appetito, Betch!” I assume he says “betch” instead of another word that uses four of those same letters, and I am not talking about “fetch.” His grammar is fairly atrocious, so maybe he is just bad at spelling, too, but I assume he thinks “betch” is funny for some reason. I don’t even have to tell you that he has a smirking, handsome face that you instantly want to punch.
And althou.
