Today, the original Parmesan can only be found in Wisconsin. Panettone and tiramisu? You were born in the supermarket. Oh, and the Americans invented carbonara. Self…
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The Parmesan Original now only found in Wisconsin. The Panettone and the Tiramisu? You were born in the supermarket. Oh yes, and there bacon and egg The Americans invented it. If the reader has gotten this far, immediately put the blunt object away. The Financial Times thought about turning the Italian culinary tradition upside down with an interview with Alberto Grandi, author and president of the degree in Economics and Management at the University of Parma, one of the capitals of Made in Italy. And he, a professor of food history, is no stranger to provocations that turn on its head the orthodoxy to which many Italians are accustomed (and fond).
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Parmesan, panettone and tiramisu: the origin controversy
To emerge unscathed from a controversy that has already ignited the comments on the Financial Times’ social networks, it is necessary to proceed step by step. The provocation comes from an interview that Marianna Giusti conducted ad Albert Grandi, one who has devoted his entire career to debunking myths related to our country’s culinary tradition, based on the existing scholarly literature. And uncomfortable truths aren’t always easy to digest.
As the Panettone, on which Grandi expresses himself as follows: «Before the 20th century, panettone was a thin and hard focaccia filled with raisins. It was only eaten by the poor and had nothing to do with Christmas. Panettone as we know it today is an industrial invention. In the 1920s, Angelo Motta introduced a new dough recipe and started the “tradition” of the dome-shaped panettone. Then, in the 1970s, faced with growing competition from supermarkets, independent bakeries began making dome-shaped panettones themselves. After a bizarre journey back, panettone has finally become what it never was: an artisanal product».
Second chapter, the Tiramisu: There has always been a dispute over the origins of cities and regions competing for the title of birthplace of the world’s most famous dessert. According to Grandi, it first appeared in cookbooks in the 1980s, and before that its main ingredient, mascarpone, was hard to find outside of Milan.
Parmesan, however, as it was once made, “is now only found in Wisconsin.” “Its history is extraordinarily old, about a thousand years old. But before the 1960s, Parmesan wheels weighed only about 25 pounds and were surrounded by a thick, black crust. Its texture used to be oilier and softer than it is today. Its exact modern equivalent is Wisconsin Parmesan.” But how is that possible? Italian immigrants in the early twentieth century, probably from the Po region north of Parma, started making it in Wisconsin, and unlike Italy, the recipe evolved never there.And parmesan, which in Italy has over the years become a Ferris-wheel hard cheese with a light-colored rind, has stayed true to the original in Wisconsin.
The protests of the Italians: “This is how you start the war”
A huge debate erupted on the Financial Times’ Instagram profile. “This post will probably be remembered as the beginning of World War III,” reads the most clicked comment. With almost nine hundred comments, the tenor is more or less the same: “Are you kidding or what?” So much so that the Financial Times itself was forced to step in and declare that it was not an American newspaper and therefore had no interest in promoting the US origins of these traditions.
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