Honoring the man who invented tiramisu

Today I learned that I might be older than tiramisu. The most widely agreed upon origin story for this popular Italian dessert is that it was invented in Treviso, Italy in the early 1970s at restaurant Le Beccherie by pastry chef Roberto Linguanotto. Linguanotto died last week at the age of 81. Pastry chefs around the world offered their condolences, praising Linguanotto as a humble man who didn’t take credit for inventing the signature dish until after it had become popular.

Linguanotto created tiramisu alongside Alba Campeol, the wife of Le Beccherie’s owner. According to the chef, he accidentally “dropped mascarpone in a bowl of eggs and sugar, liked the taste, and the pair worked from there, adding coffee and ladyfingers” to create the now iconic dessert. But like most food origin stories, there is some controversy about who actually created this dish.

Another Italian chef, Carminantonio Iannaccone, who emigrated to the United States in 2002, says that he’s the inventor of tiramisu, and that his brother sold the recipe to Le Beccherie, where Linguanotto took credit for creating it. The restaurant’s owner, Carlo Campeol, described the theory as “preposterous.” Regardless of who invented tiramisu, it remains a staple on Italian restaurant menus and a favorite of home cooks because it’s easy to make and delicious. Like all good icebox cakes (that’s really what it is, don’t you think?), tiramisu has spawned many variations on its original theme, such as the Malted milk tiramisu from Delicious Magazine (Aus) pictured above.