Anna Del Conte was born in Milan. Her first book, Portrait of Pasta, was published on 1976. Since then she has gone on to publish classic, award-winnning titles, such as Entertaining all Italiana and The Classic Food of Northern Italy. The latter won the Guild of Foodwriter's Book Award and the Orio Vergani prize of the Accademia Italiana della Cucina. In 1994, she won the prestigious Premio Nazionale de Cultura Gastronomica for dissemination of knowledge concerning authentic Italian food. Anna lives in Dorset with her husband.