The sixth installment of the Windows to the World Lecture Series will feature Ken Albala, speaking on the cultural history of Italian cuisine in the United States. His talk, "Italianità in America," will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 11, at Sonoma Community Center, 276 E. Napa St.

The lecture series is sponsored by the Sonoma Community Center and the Sonoma Sister Cities Association.

Launched in October, the cultural arts series offers a variety of perspectives on the seven countries of Sonoma's Sister Cities: Hungary, Italy, Mexico, China, France, Ukraine and Egypt. Working together, the two organizations have presented a series of high caliber speakers, most recently the international wine entrepreneur Jean-Charles Boisset, president of Boisset Family Estates, including Buena Vista Winery.

Moving from wine to food, Albala will reflect on what was considered "authentic" Italian food in the United States since the publication of the first Italian cookbook 100 years ago. He will recount the many mistakes American cooks were accused of making, such as boiling pasta for 45 minutes or using ketchup in place of tomato sauce. He makes the case that the history of Italian cuisine in the United States is a constant reassessment and repositioning of real Italian food as opposed to Italian-American food. It is a story of the rediscovery of the food eaten in Italy through cookbooks, as well as the valorization of Italian-American cuisine as something unique in its own right.

Albala is professor of history at the University of the Pacific. He is the author or editor of 16 books on food. Albala was also editor of the "Food Cultures Around the World" series with 30 volumes in print and the 4-volume "Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia." He is also co-editor of the journal Food Culture and Society and has written a textbook entitled "Three World Cuisines: Italy, China, Mexico," and has co-authored two cookbooks.

Future speakers in the series will include Hoover Institution Fellow Dr. Paul Gregory, speaking on the Ukraine on May 9; and former president of the Association of Egyptian American Scholars, Dr. Amir El-Ahraf discussing the ecology of the Nile June 13.

Tickets to the lecture are $15, available at the community center's Box Office for purchase in person, by phone (938-4626, ext. 1) or online at svbo.org. Members of SCC and the Sonoma Sister City Association are eligible for discounted tickets, $14 each.