Two articles today (both from “The Telegraph”)
talking about that great Italian dessert – tiramisu.
Did you know that the literal translation of
the word tiramisu is “pick me up” ??
Last orders at restaurant that invented tiramisu
The dessert is said to have been invented in the 1970s by the mother of
the current owner of Le Beccherie, a restaurant in the northern Italian town of
Treviso
“Tiramisu” means “pick-me-up”
in Italian Photo: ALAMY
By Nick Squires, Rome
6:32PM GMT 27 Feb 2014
The Italian restaurant
credited with inventing tiramisu – one of the country’s most loved and imitated
gastronomic exports – is being forced to close down because of the economic
crisis and Italians’ changing eating habits.
“Tiramisu” means “pick-me-up”
in Italian but the seductive concoction of mascarpone, coffee, sweet Marsala
wine and sponge biscuits has failed to prevent the trattoria, Le Beccherie,
from falling into financial difficulties.
The restaurant, in the
northern town of Treviso, opened in 1939 but will serve its last bowl of the
creamy dessert on March 30, when its doors will be closed for good.
Carlo Campeol, 60, the owner
of the restaurant, blamed the closure on “a collapse” in the number of
customers, as Italy endures its worst recession since the Second World War.
Cash-strapped Italians are
opting to eat more cheaply in bars, grabbing a snack on the run rather than
sitting down to white table cloths and waiter service, he said.
Although there are competing
claims from other restaurants in other towns, it is generally recognised that
tiramisu was invented at Le Beccherie in the 1970s by Mr Campeol’s mother Ada,
who wanted to create a dessert that would give her an energy boost after the
birth of her son.
The impending closure of the
restaurant was met with dismay by Luca Zaia, the president of the surrounding
Veneto region.
Just a few months ago he
spearheaded a bid for Treviso to be officially recognised by the
European Union as the home of
tiramisu in the same way that Naples has been recognised as the home of pizza.
“This is the end, not just of
a piece of Treviso’s history, but also marks the closing of a page in the
gastronomic culture of the world,” Mr Zaia, a member of the right-wing,
protectionist Northern League, said. “Le Beccherie is where tiramisu was born.”
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Tiramisu claimed by Treviso
It is imitated around the world, but tiramisu is now being claimed
exclusively by the Italian town of Treviso, which claims it is the birthplace
of the creamy dessert.
Treviso, near Venice, is
demanding to be recognised as the creator of the tiramisu dessert dish Photo:
ALAMY
3:23PM BST 23 Aug 2013
Treviso, near Venice, is
demanding to be recognised as the creator of the popular dish, saying it was
invented there in the 1970s.
The move comes as regions and
countries becoming increasingly protective of their signature food and drink,
with Naples promoting itself as the home of pizza, France guarding Champagne
and the EU telling Croatia that it can no longer use the name prosek for one of
its wines because of the similarity to Italy’s prosecco.
The regional government of
Veneto will draw up the dossier about tiramisu's provenance and lodge it with
the European Union in Brussels.
They will seek to have it
given Specialità tradizionale garantita (Guaranteed traditional speciality)
status, as was achieved for Neapolitan pizza in 2010.
The campaign for official
recognition of the dessert’s provenance is being led by Luca Zaia, the
president of the Veneto region, which includes Treviso.
“It’s like pizza in Napoli,” he said. “We are
going to present a dossier to obtain a declaration that tiramisu is a typical
Treviso dish, to combat the many imitations that you find elsewhere.”
Traditionally, a dash of
Marsala sweet wine is added, but the recipe has been bastardised and altered
around the world and Marsala is often substituted for brandy, rum, Madeira or
Bailey’s.
The sponge fingers are layered
with a mixture of egg yolks and mascarpone cheese and dusted with cocoa powder.
Treviso claims that it was
invented in the 1970s by Ada Campoel, the owner of a restaurant in the town
called “Alle Beccherie”, who supposedly wanted to create a dessert that would
give her an energy boost after the birth of her first child. A young pastry
chef, Roberto “Loli” Linguanotto, also reportedly had a hand in the recipe.
But its exact provenance has
never been proved beyond doubt, and there are claims that it was invented in
the 17th century in honour of a Grand Duke of Tuscany, or in Turin in the 19th
century as a gift to Camillo Cavour, Italy’s first prime minister, or even as
an energy-giving treat for prostitutes working in an Italian brothel in the
1950s.
“It is right that we ask for
recognition for this regional dish, in order to raise the profile of Treviso
and the Veneto region in terms of food,” said Mr Zaia, who served as minister
for agriculture during the last government of Silvio Berlusconi and is a member
of the Northern League, which once campaigned for the secession of northern
Italy.
“It’s a product that is at
risk of being imitated in many different versions, which do not do justice to
the place where it was born. He added that there was “ample documentation” to
prove Treviso’s claim.
The initiative would “pay
homage to a speciality that has conquered the world”.
