When it comes to culinary background, Laura Santtini is certainly from good stock (forgive the pun). With her parents owning the Santtini’s restaurant in Belgravia, which was reportedly Frank Sinatra’s’ favourite, you would expect her to know her Tagliatelle from her Tiramisu.

Following a format similar to Jamie Oliver’s ‘How to Cook,’ recipes, Santtini offers the reigns to learn basic, then more experimental, versions of classic Italian fare. The obvious difference is whilst Jamie was dealing with reformed fish-finger addicts, Santtini is passing on a far more accomplished skill.

This is certainly not a reliable cookbook that you turn to in times of need, like your Mary Berry, always there when you need a reminder of a roux recipe. Instead, Easy Tasty Italian offers an extravagant, flamboyant, treasure trove of concoctions. Traditional Italian cooking is little known for its elegance. In fact, to many, it’s thought of as gluttonous, mounds of cheesy pasta. But Santtini brings a feminine elegance, which transforms traditional recipes into an explosion of jewelled colours and unexpected flavours, that wouldn’t look out of place in a fine dining restaurant.

The references in the foreword, to the only recently acknowledged fifth sense, Umami, are a clue that rather than being a cookbook, Santtini is hoping to offer the reader a step by step, magic guide, to food alchemy.

Recipes are divided into Air, Water, Fire and Earth and there is something organically simple and earthly about the food. However, that’s juxtaposed by glossy photography and edgy quotes, making it feel more like a culinary manifesto for change.

The key to her recipes’ success is the flavour combinations, various rubs, pastes and seasonings that can transform simple dishes. And I can’t help but feel that with names like Rose stardust, Lavender Rub and her references to food bling – Santtini is trying to inject some of the passion and excitement, which was so badly missing in English food when she moved here, from Italy, in 1971.

The chapter list reads like a book of spells with Elixirs and potion notions, Flavour bombs and compound interests. And with recipes such as Grissini Wands and Magic Fingers, Great Balls of Fire and Umami plate, Santtini will help you create Alice in Wonderland-esque, surreal, decadence fests. But the concept for cooking is surprisingly simple. Most chapters have a basic lay out of how you can alter, for example, simple basil pesto, with just a few extra spices, into a more exotic Rose Chermoula. By providing this insight Santtini is passing on the intrinsic, self-awareness that was so integral in the Italian cooking she grew up with.

If you buy Easy Tasty Italian you won’t just be transforming your dinner table, you’ll be transforming your kitchen into a laboratory of exciting tastes, smells and explosions. The Domestic goddess is so last season, this is the year of the Domestic Alchemist!